Soul Eater's Soul Reaper
by Dark demon619
Summary: The Winter War didn't end well for Ichigo Kurosaki. Forced to leave his home, Ichigo is forced into a new war, Can Ichigo make a new life for himself in this new and crazy world, and more importantly, What the hell is with the Sun! BleachXSoulEater.
1. War Never Changes

I do not own either Bleach, Soul Eater, or Fallout they belong to their rightful owners.

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><p>War never changes.<p>

Since the dawn of human kind our ancestors discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from god, to justice, to simple psychotic rage. These endless battles of blood and pain have spread throughout history itself, wars of ancient cultures to modern conflicts between nations. These battles never ended well for one side or another, for one nation would see the spoils of victory, the other would only see the pain of defeat. But this was not always the case, for it was not impossible for both sides to feel the sting of utter failure.

The Wars of Gods and Demons are no different.

The Winter War had finally come to a close less than a week ago. Almost all of the Espada were killed in the resulting battle in Fake Karakura town. One of the few that remained after this was the former third Espada Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, who has taken up residence in Las Noches with her fraccion and other peaceful Arrancar after promising the Gotei Thirteen (really just Ichigo) that she would keep the powerful hollows under control in return to not getting hunted down for what she was. The only other surviving Espada was the Sixth Espada Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, whose whereabouts were currently unknown after he escaped Las Noches despite his grave injuries.

The Gotei thirteen's wounds were much less severe but they were still noticeable. The three Captain positions that were emptied even before the war began were still unfilled. With that in mind, many other Captains were still wounded from the battles with the Espada and Aizen. In fact, only about five of the ten Captains were still in condition to be active, Captain Commander Yamamoto surprisingly was one of these few despite the fact he was missing an arm.

With the current weakened condition of the Soul Society, the Spirit King issued an order to not only completely reinstate the Central Forty-Six with brand new members, but also allow them access to the Royal Guard until he deemed the Gotei thirteen to be back in acceptable condition, something that really annoyed everyone to the brink of sanity.

Unfortunately this decision would in turn cause the lost of one of the greatest allies the Soul Society would ever know.

Tired, this was the only way Ichigo Kurosaki could describe how he felt right now.

The young Shinigami was currently sitting on the roof of his home. Home, could he really call it that now? To him home was a place where you lived with your family and despite all the crazy antics that happened there, your home would fill you with a feeling of warmth and live. But the house below his feet no longer gave Ichigo any of those feelings, not sense before the end of the war had this place given the boy anything good at all.

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><p>The end of the war was deeply devastating to Ichigo personality. After returning to his home town after his training with Tensa Zangestu and his hollow with his exhausted father in tow, Ichigo immediately went on the offensive. Striking blow to blow with Aizen, Ichigo was almost surprised how much his training had helped even the odds with Aizen despite the fact the bastard had the Hogyoku with him.<p>

But despite the newly found power, Aizen's continuous evolution using the Hogyoku proved to be a factor that made him almost unbeatable.

After landing a good blow to the newly monstrous Aizen, the former Captain unexpectedly rushed back towards Karakura with Ichigo close behind him. With Aizen's mentality completely out of the picture, Ichigo was having a hard time figuring out what the hell he was doing. But the next few seconds would shock Ichigo to his very core for the rest of his days.

Moving at such high speeds would have made it normally impossible to notice the places they speed over, but for Ichigo it was a different story. With his nearly sharpened senses Ichigo was painfully aware of the places they passed over, but what alarmed him was when he noticed Aizen stop for a moment before seeing him head back to where they first began their confrontation, his home. Bursting with speed, Ichigo soon caught up with the crazed being, only to be shocked to see him holding two small figures by their collars. For Aizen had taken both of Ichigo's sisters.

Ichigo demanded Aizen to let them go, that the fight was between just the two of them. But the shattered mind of the former Captain of the Fifth division would not be swain, eerily saying that shook Ichigo to his core.

"_Why not invite the whole family?"_

His grip tightened around the girl's necks, making them struggle to even stay conscious. Ichigo meanwhile was frozen, he couldn't move a single muscle, fear for his sister's lives had taken a hold of him. Aizen's toothy grin widened at the look in the young shinigami's eyes as the life was slowly being drained from his loved one's eyes, the sadistic bastard was enjoying every moment of this torture.

But before anyone could notice, Ichigo's father, Isshin Kurosaki launched himself at Aizen. His eyes were burning with a rage that would make both Kenpachi and Yammy wet themselves. Swinging his Zanpakuto above his head, Isshin prepared to strike down Aizen with all of his might.

"_AIZEN!"_

But due to his weakened state, Isshin was in no shape to take on anyone in combat especially the monster that the former fifth division captain had become. The rest of the Kurosaki family had to watch in horror as one of Aizen's hollow faced tentacles launch itself. But when it stopped nearly a foot away from Isshin's face, said shinigami and his daughters nearly sighed in relief, but not Ichigo.

For his eyes only widened in horror.

Without a moment's notice, the mask's mouth opened up and formed another energy blast,the same ones Aizen attempted to use against Ichigo earlier in their battle. The blast then was launched at the weaken shinigami and with nor the energy or the time to dodge, the blast engulfed him. The explosion was insanely powerful, shattering nearly a mile of earth, creating a shockwave so powerful that it made the atomic bomb seem like a firecracker in comparison. The massive Spiritual power of the individuals was the only thing that protected them from such an explosion.

When the smoke and dust cleared, there was no sign of the former Captain and father figure. Nothing was left at all, much to the fear of his children.

Ichigo and Karin were expressionless; the shock of such a action had shattered their weak minds. But Yuzu was the exact opposite, she was balling her eyes out, her chocking sobs filling the silent air despite the fact the monster before them still had his hand around her neck.

But Aizen? He was grinning, his razor sharp teeth twisted up into one of the most disgusting smiles anyone could ever imagine.

"_So emotional…all of you."_

The cracking of the monster's knuckles drew the reddened eyes of Ichigo back towards him, his black fingers leaving impressions in the girl's necks. Ichigo himself was almost on the verge of breaking down and begging his opponent to let his sisters go, but the Aizen still wouldn't budge on inch.

"_All of it is just so unfitting for you Ichigo. It's just so…"_

Aizen's grip tightened even more, his sadistic grin growing wider as he increased the pressure until…

"_Ichi-nii…" Yuzu whispered with tears dripping down her checks._

"_Ichigo…" Karin struggled to say despite the unholy grip constricting her throat._

"…_pathetic."_

And with a sharp crack, Ichigo's eyes widened and Aizen broke out into a sickening laugh. Ichigo's sister's eyes were drained of life; their cute young faces that had always filled him with warmth were pale, and the just hung in the monster's grip, showing no resentence that they formally had. But what broke Ichigo was the painful sight of the broken chains connected to their small forms and there, on the ground, was their souls.

They looked alive again, only unconscious. But any hope that the forms that Aizen was hold was just another illusion was shattered when he saw the remaining halves of their chains lying next to them. It was at this very moment did Ichigo's mind collapse.

He dropped to his knees, Zangestu falling to the ground beside him. Tears, true tears started to dip onto his checks as he stared at the sisters he cared so much about. It was the first time in years, the first time since Ichigo's mother died had he cried. Reaching out to the fallen forms of his dear sisters, did Ichigo finally break down into a full going sob, something he promised himself he would never do again.

While all the while did Aizen looked on, his twisted grin turn into a laugh that only the devil himself could muster. Ichigo didn't even seem to pay attention to the sick laughter, something that caused Aizen to laugh even harder.

"_It's just so Pathetic Ichigo! You gain the power of God and yet you weep over the death of two humans? It's just so pathetic."_

Ichigo was shaking now, his tears weren't stopping and he couldn't even bare to look at the monster before. The words digging in, twisting every emotion that lay dormant in Ichigo's very soul.

"_To think you wanted to protect everyone who was dear to you."_

Ichigo froze at that statement.

"_And yet when it came down to those who you loved the most…you failed."_

Everything going on in Ichigo's mind just stopped the moment he registered those words.

"_You Failed Ichigo Kurosaki…they're dead…you could have saved them…but you failed." _

That very moment was when Ichigo couldn't take it anymore. He started to shake again, with anger not sadness this time. His knuckles turned white as he grabbed his Zanpakuto and twisted his head at the chuckling madman. He then whispered something, his voice shaking enough for Aizen to barley understand him.

"…_I'll kill you…"_

Aizen turned to the unstable shinigami, a demonic grin still adorning his face. He carelessly tossed the bodies of Ichigo's sisters to the side and took a few steps closer to the boy. Raising the blade that now adorned his right arm, Aizen brought it down and skimmed it gently across his check before replying.

"_What was that? I didn't quite catch that."_ Aizen said in a humorous voice.

Then without warning, Ichigo's arm shot out and took hold of the blade, much to Aizen's surprise. And despite how hard he tried, Ichigo's firm grip would not faultier and remained strong.

"_I said…"_

In an instant Ichigo's hand crushed the blade without even a simple amount of effort. Aizen, utterly surprised by this jumped backwards, getting some distance between the two of them. As he looked back at the boy, a stunned look on this monstrous face, Aizen could only wait for the next move Ichigo would make. Ichigo slowly raised his head to meet at eye level with his foe and slowly opened his eyes to reveal black pupils, yellow irises and the black sclera of his eyes; eyes filled with rage that could tear an entire dimension to shreds.

"…_I"LL KILL YOU!"_

After that moment Ichigo's memory began to fade, showing him only mere fragments of the events that transpired. Images of an engaging inferno that destroyed everything in its path, screams of pain so intense and blood…so much blood. To this day Ichigo couldn't remember what exactly happened in those moments but either way he didn't care, whatever he did killed Aizen, and he was okay with that.

Shortly after regaining his bearings Ichigo made his way back to where this all started, where his sisters were. Looking at their still forms nearly brought Ichigo to tears again, Aizen's words still echoing inside his mind, reminding him of all he promised and failed to do, keeping his sisters safe. Can't taking it anymore, Ichigo dropped to his knees and started to cry his eyes out, begging forgiveness for his failure. But while doing this Ichigo didn't notice his sisters starting to stir.

_"Ichigo…"_

Ichigo slowly lifted his head and gazed at the source of the voice. Karin was looking at Ichigo with a sad look in her eyes, she looked tired, sad, and of course concerned. Ichigo rushed to her side and helped her into a sitting position, seeing how she was about fall on her face from lack of strength.

_"Karin, how do you feel?..." _Ichigo asked, his tears causing his voice to crack.

_"I've been better, how's Yuzu?"_

Ichigo turned his concerned eyes to gaze at his other little sister. Keeping Karin securely in his arms, Ichigo slowly approached Yuzu's laying form. His heart nearly broke in two when he sat down next to her, her crying were something Ichigo could never bear to hear. Gently laying Karin down next to her sister Ichigo calmly stroked his sister's hair in a attempting to calm his sister down somewhat. But the sound of her quietly sobbing was too much for Ichigo, especially combined with the next thing she said.

_"Tou-san…why?"_

Ichigo couldn't say anything to comfort her, he just couldn't. Glancing at the crater the massive explosion created in the ground, Ichigo couldn't feel anything, anything but regret that is.

_"The old fool…why did he do that?" _Karin couldn't help but mutter into Ichigo's sleeve, _"Why Ichigo?...Why did he have to do that!"_

Not able to take their tears anymore, Ichigo pulled both of his sisters into a tight embrace.

_"He wanted to protect you two, he didn't care what happened to himself…all he cared about was you both."_

The three siblings shared a long, tear filled hug for a few moments before finally releasing each other. Karin was relatively calm now while Yuzu still had a few tears in her eyes, Ichigo himself had a expression on his face, not even wanting to think about what was about to come up.

_"Ichi-nii? What happens now?"_ Yuzu asked, concerned and confused about her brother's look.

Karin on the other hand was already aware of the reason behind her brother's expression, her hands tightly holding the broken chain attached to her chest.

_"I'm sorry…Karin, Yuzu…I'm…s-sorry."_Ichigo couldn't keep his calm composer any longer and broke down, much to the surprise of his sisters.

_"Ichi-nii what's wrong?" _Yuzu asked, still unfamiliar with seeing her brother crying at all.

_"I-it's my fault, all of this is my fault…It's my fault dads gone, and it's my fault you're both…" _Ichigo replied, his tears making his voice hard to understand before Karin interrupted him.

_"Shut up! None of this is your fault! How can you think that Ichigo?"_

Ichigo only shook his head, refusing Karin's words, _"No! It is my fault! I wasn't strong enough! I couldn't protect you two! I couldn't protect dad! I couldn't protect anyone! I failed yo-'SMACK'"_

The sound of Yuzu's hand slapping Ichigo across the face surprised both him and Karin, who was about to do the very same thing a moment later.

_"Don't you say that Ichigo! Don't ever say that! You didn't fail anyone, you did the best you could and don't ever tell us that again!"_

Ichigo didn't believe her, he still felt that he failed them both, but the words she spoke did make him feel a bit better. Slowly putting on a sad smile, Ichigo slowly helped his sisters get to their feet before embracing them in another bone breaking hug.

After being released from her brother's hug, Yuzu repeated her previous question, _"Um…Ichi-nii?"_

_"Yes Yuzu?"_

_"…what's going to happen to us now?"_

Ichigo pulled his gaze from his sisters faces, this was a moments he really wanted to postpone as long as he could,"_I guess I'll have to perform a Konsō on you both and send you to the Soul Society."_

Karin had an eyebrow raze at this while Yuzu asked him something else, _"What's the Soul Society?"_

Ichigo let out an annoyed sigh at his little sister's question, he really didn't want o explain what the Soul Society really was so he just went with the short version of it, _"Think of it as Heaven Yuzu."_

Yuzu grinned at Ichigo's simple answer, clearly satisfied with his answer while Karin on the other hand wanted to ask a far more important question.

_"Will we see you again Ichigo?"_ she asked the stunned shinigami, mentally praying for the answer she hoped for. After about a minute of silence, Ichigo gave her a nice smile.

_"Of course you will Imouto, I promise."_

Unfortunately Karin didn't return his smile. Even after years after their mother's death, Karin could always see through Ichigo's fake smiles, the ones he used to hide his true feelings behind a false sense of happiness in moments of great pain. And his current smile was just one of those moments.

_"Don't lie to me Ichigo; you know you've never been that good at it." _Karin said with a sad grin.

Ichigo returned her grin, _"Ya, makes wonder how my teacher believes all my excuses at school."_

Reaching down and picking up Tensa Zangestu, Ichigo hesitantly brought the hilt up to his sister's eye level. His hand was shaking, he knew this had to be down, the sooner the better would be the best for all of them despite the fact none of them wanted it.

_"You both ready?"_ He asked hesitantly, wishing both would deny him this.

_"Yes Ichigo, I'm ready." _Karin replied while Yuzu just nodded, tears threatening their calm appearances.

Slowly brining the hilt of his Zanpakuto inches from their foreheads, he couldn't bring himself to do it, to lose the last of his family, the last of his loved ones, the ones he failed.

_"I love you Ichi-nii."_

_"Love you, Ichigo."_

That did it, the walls that made up Ichigo's will broke down and tears started to roll down his checks.

_"I love you both too…Goodbye."_

And with those final words and a flash of light, they were gone. Karin and Yuzu Kurosaki had moved on from the world of the living.

For Ichigo, everything just froze for a few moments. He was alone, his father, his sisters, his mother; they all were gone, leaving the young shinigami all alone. And finally after an unimaginable amount of time for Ichigo, he just dropped to the ground, his Zanpakuto leaving his hand and eyes were slammed shut. Releasing the most heart shattering scream ever heard, Ichigo's inner world was engulfed in the hardest downpour since Ichigo's mother died.

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><p>That's how we end up with this scene, Ichigo in his shinigami form, sitting on the roof of the empty Kurosaki clinic. The past week hadn't been good to him, despite the attempts at cheering him up; Ichigo's friends had no luck at restoring the boy to his former scowling self. It was a horrible for everyone to see him that way, even though Tatsuki had seen Ichigo go through something similar when his mother died she never saw him this bad off before.<p>

All he could do was think; thinking was he escapes for the moment, at least until he felt a familiar yet annoying spiritual pressure behind him.

"What do you want Urahara-san?" Ichigo asked his guest, not really caring at the moment.

Kisuke Urahara, the owner of the Urahara Shōten and former captain of the Twelfth Division of the Gotei thirteen frowned at his old student's greeting, noticing the lack of nickname given to him.

"Ah Kurosaki-kun, how's it been?" Kisuke asked, flapping his fan over his face in the process.

"Do I really need to answer that Urahara?" Ichigo replied, not even glancing at him.

"Why so Serious Kurosaki-kun?" The shop keeper was clearly trying to cheer him up, and failing at it.

Ichigo finally turned and faced the shinigami. He didn't say anything, but Urahara understood the frown on his face. Urahara really wished he knew some way to help Ichigo get out of the slump he was in, but there was really nothing he could do, not that anyone would blame him. Almost every one of Ichigo's friends had tried at one point to get a good reaction out of the young shinigami, even Yoruichi's usual 'attempts' didn't get anything done.

Kisuke sighed, he really wanted to give Ichigo the news when he was in a better mood, "Ichigo, something's come up."

Ichigo was confused by the use of his first name at first but he gave it no notice, "Like what?"

"It's the Central Forty-Six; they basically want your head Ichigo."

Now any other time Ichigo had heard this would have forced him into an enraged fit, demanding answers from the shop keeper with no restraint. But right now Ichigo was rather concerned, he wanted to know why the Soul Society wanted him dead all of a sudden and he wasn't in the mood to go ballistic on his old teacher.

"Why would the Soul Society want me dead?"

Kisuke started to rub his head nervously, something that made Ichigo interested, "It's not really the Soul Society, just the Central Forty-Six."

This just annoyed Ichigo seeing how he really didn't know the difference between the two.

Seeing the annoyed scowl, Kisuke started to explain everything to Ichigo. After a long explanation of the inner works of the Soul Society's government, all of which Ichigo somehow was able just stand there and listen to all of it, Urahara finally started to explain what all this had to do with Ichigo.

"Now then, sense the Spirit king had the Central Forty-Six restocked and reinstated, they have been going over almost every detail concerning the war sense Aizen killed off their previous members."

"A few days ago they came across a report that concerned your hollow powers, at first they were going to sign you up with the rest of the Visords and allow you to live in exile."

Ichigo was annoyed by this, but other than that he didn't care, he just let Urahara continue.

"But after they learned of your defeat of Aizen, they decided you were too powerful to just let off, so they sent out a order to execute you."

Kisuke would have expected Ichigo to be angry, to be furious, to be upset. But he was none of those, instead he just looked tired, tired of all of this. He just looked at the shop keeper with a bored look an muttered.

"So what Captain's are they going to send to take me in?"

Urahara just shock his head at the young shinigami, "None, they were going to send the Royal Guard to apprehend you."

Now this really did surprise Ichigo, "Royal Guard? As in the Spirit King's 'Royal Guard'?"

"Yes, under order of the Spirit King, the Central Forty-Six has authority over the Royal Guard until most of the Captains of the Gotei Thirteen are back up and running again."

Ichigo groaned at this before slumping onto his back and laid his head down onto his hands in a comfortable fashion. "So what now? Do I need to go off into hiding and wait for the inevitable?"

Urahara then put a flashy happy grin on his face before flashing his fan again, "Nope Kurosaki-kun! Now I've got some good news for you!"

"Like what?" Ichigo replied.

"Well, Captain Yammamto was able to convince them into a compromise!"

With interest in his eyes, Ichigo looked back at his friend, "What kind of compromise?"

"Simple! You've got to leave!" Urahara said cheerfully.

"…what?" Finally after so much, a confusing expression formed on Ichigo's face.

Kisuke just laughed at the expression on Ichigo's face, getting a feeling of victory over the fact that he finally of Ichigo to display an emotion other than saddness and bordom. Getting a funny, yet creepy grin on his own face, Urahara asked Ichigo one last question.

"Tell me Kurosaki-kun, what do you know about a place called Shibusen?"

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><p>(1)- The begining Intro is from Fallout 3...I love those games.<p>

(2)- Shibusen = **Death Weapon Meister Academy**

As you can see, this is a AU Bleach and Soul Eater Crossover. Both storylines follow the manga and are set in the same world. While Soul Eater's storyline is nearly the same, Bleach's is mainly a AU.

Ichigo did not use the Final Gestuga Tencho, at the sight of his family's deaths he hollowfied in his post training form, and seeing how he was already stronger than Aizen normally, he ripped him to pieces in this form, I don't care if he could have regenerated, A hollowfied post-training Ichigo wasted him. I made Aizen alot more crazy in this one, seening how he was losing it duringthe final battle with Ichigo. And I'm sorry if anyone's mad at the death of Ichigo's family, its for the plot and they will be missed (although there is still gona be jokes towards Isshin thoughout this fic).

Now I'm not going to completely eliminate the Bleach portion of this world. There will be various Bleach characters that will appear from time to time, don't be surpised if Kenpachi randomly bursts through a wall into the school and chases after Ichigo or Rangiku somehow drags Hitsugaya to America for shopping.

The main pairings of this Fic are going to be IchigoxBlair and IchigoxTsubaki, there may be a third girl paired with Ichigo but that would happen later in the storyline.

Now then, next Chapter Ichigo arrives in Death City, meets a certain kitty cat, and enters Shibusen for the first time! See you then!


	2. Welcome to Death City!

Chapter 2! Here we go now, Ichigo arrives in Death Cityand meets a good many characters, lets start.

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><p>"I hate flying."<p>

It's true; Ichigo hated flying right about now. It's been a long time sense he bordered the plane to North America and he was beginning to get very fidgety. Along he didn't have much to do onboard the plane; he did have plenty to think about. The words spoken by Kisuke Urahara still spun and whorled around in his mind like a never ending train track.

_/Flashback/_

_"Tell me Kurosaki-kun, what do you know about a place called Shibusen?"_

_Ichigo was confused by this question, yes he did know about a school named Shibusen, although he didn't know that much about it. All Ichigo did know was that it was a very successful school in Nevada, a state in the United States of America. But other than that, Ichigo had nothing on the mysterious school. _

_Seeing the confused expression, Kisuke chuckled to himself before continuing to explain, "I'm sure you're confused Kurosaki-kun, well then let me tell you its not the most normal school around."_

"_Really? I hadn't noticed." Ichigo deadpanned. _

_"No seriously Kurosaki-kun, it's very special!" Kisuke said with enough enthusiasm to make Ichigo gag._

_"Ya ya, everything's special in your eyes." Having enough of this crap, Ichigo turned his back to his friend and started to walk away. But before he reached the edge of the house's roof Kisuke shouted something._

_"The Headmaster is a Shinigami!"_

_That stopped Ichigo in this tracks, by the time he turned to face Kisuke he had the world's largest grin planted on his face…much to Ichigo's displeasure. _

_"He's actually a very good friend of mine, I'm sure I could…."_

_"Wait a moment, how is a Shinigami in control of a school? And how do you know hi-"_

_But before Ichigo could finish he got a face full of fan via the world's most annoying shop keeper (well in Ichigo's opinion anyway). "Nope that's not for me to tell Kurosaki-kun! You'll have to ask him yourself when you get there, you leave in two days!" Kisuke said grinning._

_"Wait what?" Ichigo exclaimed._

_"Don't worry! You're having plenty of time to say goodbye!" Kisuke eagerly said before handing Ichigo two tickets, "Here are your tickets, come to my store in two days! See you then Kurosaki-kun!"_

_And before Ichigo could react Kisuke disappeared in a burst of shumpo, leaving Ichigo alone on his roof. Sighing to himself, Ichigo could only look down at the plane tickets in his hands._

_"Two days…"_

_/Flashback End/_

And an interesting two days it was.

During the first day all Ichigo did was gathering up everything he was taking with him and locking up the house. Ichigo had to accept the fact that he just couldn't stay in his home town anymore. After hunting down Urahara again (and beating the crap out of him for ditching him last time), Ichigo was able to finally force some **useful** information out of the crazy shop keeper.

After breaking nearly everything in the shop and smashing Kisuke's stupid hat over his head, he finally told Ichigo the truth. It turns out that Head Captain Yammamoto was able to convince the Central Forty-Six that if Ichigo was to have no more contact with the Soul Society from now on and leave the highly spiritual area that is Karakura town, they would not try to execute him.

It's easy to say that Ichigo didn't believe a word of it and tried to knock his host out again for lying to his face…again. It was only the fortunate arrival of Yoruichi that saved Kisuke from the beating of his afterlife. After explaining basically everything Kisuke had said earlier, although in a much more believable fashion (and with less bullshit when Ichigo was concerned), Ichigo couldn't help but agree with them. Whatever Kisuke's plan was and whatever it had to do with Shibusen was his best bet, not that he had a choice anyway.

The rest of his day went by pretty quick. His night was less than pleasant though. The nightmares would never stop, plaguing every moment he had his eyes closed, even for a single moment.

Goodbyes were one of those things that Ichigo could never really take, maybe it was because he never got to say goodbye to his mother. Either way he just couldn't stand them.

The next day or his final day as Ichigo put it was something that ached in his heart. All of his friends had different reactions to his news and each said their goodbyes as well. Ishida and Chad just nodded at him with a hint of sadness and their respect for the young Shinigami. Tatsuki just hugged her childhood friend and promised him that if he didn't write to her she would walk over the seas themselves just to beat the crap out of him.

Orihime's however was not as simple; she was so devastated that she broke down and embraced Ichigo in a hug that could have broken his spine. Nearly begging, she asked if she could go with him but she knew that he would refuse, Ichigo would let never someone to just give up everything just for him.

After the final-tear filled goodbye Ichigo made his way to the Urahara Shōten with a duffel bag in hand. It took a few minutes but when he arrived he was treated with the sight of a smug grinning Kisuke Urahara standing at the front door, resisting the urge to slug him in the face Ichigo followed him inside. After sitting down for some tea (Urahara insisted), Urahara started to explain the simple details of Ichigo's trip, plane number, take-off time, and other things. After their discussion was over Ichigo made his way to the door and grabbed his bag, but before he made his way out the door he felt an odd weight in his duffle bag.

Opening it up, he saw a small black cat nestled in-between a few of his shirts and pants. Putting on a sad smile he placed the bag on the floor and gently picked the cat up. Looking into the sad yellow eyes, Ichigo gently hugged the cat, feeling a few wet tears fall onto his shirt. After letting the hug go on for a few moments, Ichigo slowly walked over to Kisuke and handed him the saddened Yoruichi. Taking one last look into the store, Ichigo waved goodbye and headed to the airport, never to set foot in his home town ever again.

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><p>But that was what lead us to his current situation, flying somewhere above the clouds miles outside his home town.<p>

"Attention passengers, we will be arriving in Death City, Nevada in fifteen minutes. Please fasten your seat belts."

This sudden interruption snapped Ichigo free of his thoughts. Sighing to himself, Ichigo grabbed his seatbelt and buckled it tight, glad to be off this flying hunk of metal soon enough.

-**20 minutes later-**

Death City, Nevada. To say Ichigo was massively surprised would have been the understatement of the century. Being so used to the large cluster of the buildings that is Karakura town, Ichigo was utterly in awe at the Oasis that was Death city. The gloomy style of the buildings, the towering landscape that continued to flow upward into the sky, and mysterious building at the top of it all, it was amazing. But what shocked the young Shinigami was the sun….ya that was different.

Walking through the main streets of the city, Ichigo noticed a few other things. For one everyone seemed normal, nothing random, nothing strange, even after everything Ichigo has seen and been through everything seemed normal…despite the fact the sun was still creepy. The buildings had a gothic feel to them and were kind of strange seeing what year it was, but other than that it was normal. Hell, Ichigo didn't even get any glances or stares because of his hair color, much to his relief.

Glancing down the street, Ichigo could see the where the current street was headed towards, the massive building decorated with skulls and candles, the place where Kisuke directed him to, Shibusen. Sighing to himself, Ichigo continued down the street until he heard a tiny noise that caught his attention.

"Meow?"

Turning around, Ichigo saw a particular sight. He saw a small black cat wearing a fairly large witch's hat perched atop a mail box. It had a long curly tail, huge yellow eyes, and around its neck was a small collar that looked similar to a Jack-o lantern. It was staring at him with a certain glean in its eyes, something that made Ichigo nervous for some odd reason.

The two of them had a sort of stare off for a minute or two, with Ichigo scowling at the fuzzy creature and the cat just smiling cutely at the young Shinigami. After about three and a half minutes of looking at each other Ichigo had enough and simply turned his back to the feline and started walking off towards Shibusen once again. But before he could get even three feet away he found that same cat sitting in front of him, its tail swinging in the air and a small smile on its face. Eye twitching, Ichigo attempted to walk over the cat but that also met with limited success. The moment he turned around to check if the cat was still there, he saw the fuzzy creature wasn't on the ground behind him anymore, but it was perched on top of Zangestu's hilt, carelessly crewing on the loose fabric that was wrapped around it.

"You're not going to leave are you?" he asked the curious cat, to which it only replied with a shake of its head.

Sighing to himself, Ichigo just scratched the cat behind the ears, "Well if you want…"

Realizing that he didn't know the cat's name Ichigo took a look at its collar. Seeing only the pumpkin face on the front he turned it around to see a small name engraved in it.

"…Blair, just don't unravel that cloth, Zangestu won't like that."

It was at times like this he really wanted to bash Kisuke in the head for what he did to his body, despite the bonuses it had this new badge of his was a pain at some times.

_Flashback: 20 minutes before leaving Karakura town._

_"Kurosaki-kun, wait a second. I have something for you." Kisuke asked the young shinigami._

_"What is it?" Ichigo replied._

_It was about twenty minutes until Ichigo had to be at the airport. Waiting patiently in main room of the Urahara shop, Ichigo was slightly annoyed, he really didn't want to miss his flight, and he was sure Urahara didn't want another beating himself. Seeing the shop keeper coming out of one of the numerous back rooms that made up the shop, Ichigo noticed the old man holding something behind his back._

_"Ta-Da!" Kisuke announced, holding out a familiar sight to Ichigo, his combat badge, the one he got when his friends and him left the Soul Society the first time. _

_"Oh, thanks Kisuke, I almost forgot about this." Ichigo thanked him and reached out for his badge._

_"Nope, this is not the same badge Ichigo! I've made some interesting changes to it!" Kisuke replied while pulling the badge out of Ichigo's reach._

_Now normally Ichigo would be curious at something like this but seeing how this is THE Kisuke Urahara, he had reason to fear whatever this madman had done. "What did you do?"_

_Kisuke took on a fake hurt expression, "Why Kurosaki-kun what could be wrong, I've only made a few adjustments to you combat bad-ack!" _

_He never got too finished when Ichigo grabbed him by the throat and lifted him about a foot off the ground, "What DID you DO?"_

_Quickly waving his hands in frightened manor, Kisuke was relieved to be released by the annoyed teenager. Gathering his breath that had been strangled out of him, Kisuke began to explain the changes he had made to Ichigo's badge._

_"Well then Ichigo 'cough' I've made two distinct changes to your combat badge. The first thing I did was add this to the back of it." Kisuke explained, pointing the small device on placed on the back of the badge._

_"This is my newest invention; I call it the body storage kit!" Kisuke announced with renewed vigor, much to Ichigo's annoyance, something that Kisuke noticed._

_"Ok Ichigo, despite its name this new feature will basically activate every time you use your badge."_

_"No shit"_

_Kisuke was embarrassed by that one, it was obvious, "Anytime you use your badge, this device will store your body inside it, making your need for mod soul nonexistent."_

_Ichigo was surprised by this, at first he thought it would some useless add on like making his badge play mp3s or something stupid like that. But his would be very useful whenever he had to fight hollows, with this he wouldn't need to explain to anyone about his seemingly dead body._

_"Now about the other feature I went ahead and installed for you."_

_Ichigo froze, "What?"_

_"I've also added a feature that whenever you have the badge on your person, your Zanpakuto will materialize."_

_Ichigo didn't say anything, still thinking about the concept itself, "Here, catch." Taking Ichigo by surprise, Kisuke tossed the badge to his friend, who barley was able to catch it_

_The moment Ichigo had the badge in his hands; he noticed a familiar weight appear on his back. Turning his head slowly, Ichigo saw the familiar sight of his Zanpakuto, Zangestu in its shikai form resting on his back. _

_It turns out that Kisuke wasn't really truthful about these upgrades he made to Ichigo's combat badge. It seems that even when Ichigo didn't have the badge on his person, like when he had it in his duffle bag or just near by the effect were still active. He first noticed it when he arrived at the airport; he nearly missed his plane because of the annoying situation he had to settle with the airport security. Kisuke was just lucky enough Ichigo was nowhere near him now, or else he would be dead fifty times over by now._

_Flashback end._

Sighing to himself, Ichigo made sure Blair was safely attached to his shoulder (she stopped chewing on Zangestu's hilt a moment ago) and started off down the road again, towards massive school at the highest point of the city.

**Five minutes later, the front steps leading to Shibusen. **

After about five minutes of walking, which Ichigo mostly spent scratching Blair under her chin (by the name and how it acted, Ichigo could tell she was a girl by now). Finally getting to the top of the steps, Ichigo could finally see the school in its full glory. Ichigo could honestly say it was the most bazaar place he had ever seen, the massive flaming candles, the giant red towers, the skulls that made up the front doors, and the three orbs floating above the school….yea its weird . But before he started walking towards the front doors, Ichigo felt Blair jump off his shoulder. Looking behind him, Ichigo saw the cat standing her ground, a scared look on her normal cute face.

"What's a matter?" he asked, and then something clicked in his mind. Taking a glance at the school, he turned back to the frightened kitten. "Are you scared of this place?"

Blair nodded her head furiously at his question, confirming his suspicion. Sighing to himself, Ichigo walked to the frightened cat and knelled down to her level. Ichigo then did something Blair didn't expect at all; he hugged her small feline form.

This surprised Blair (and causing her to blush unconsciously), she expected this boy to call her stupid or something for being afraid of this school, not hug her! But while her mind was racing at this sudden action, she didn't notice Ichigo pick her up and carry her over to one of the nearby guard rails. Once close enough to one of them he gently put her down and released her from his grasp (much to her disappointment).

"If you really don't want to go in there, then just wait right here, I won't be too long."

Ichigo waited a few seconds for her respond but once he saw her nod he smiled, although a small one. Satisfied with her decision Ichigo turned and made his started to walk towards the academy's front doors again, but this time he was stopped by the sound of Blair again. Turning around, he noticed she was simply pointing to her collar, the flipside with her name on it to be precise with a curious look on her furry face. Despite being really dense when it came to a lot of things, it took Ichigo only a few moments to understand what she was asking.

"My names Ichigo Kurosaki."

With that Ichigo walked towards the entrance of the academy and went inside, uninterrupted this time. Unfortunately for him, he did not notice the sly expression on the cats face. Then without any notice a small cloud of purple smoke erupted around the small cat. A few seconds later the smoke cleared, and in the place of the small black cat known as Blair was a young woman. She had long violet hair and that same witch's hat on the top of her head. With a glorious figure, she was wearing a black-blue dress that showed off her shoulders and wrapped around her neck, long sleeves that reveal her hands and shoulders, a short skirt with a white frill and long high-heeled boots that curl upwards at the toes.

Swinging her legs back and forth, Blair just smiled as she watched her new friend enter the famous academy, "Your interesting Ichi, please hurry up. I want to have some fun, Nya!"

**Inside Shibusen:**

Ichigo could at least admit that the inside of the school was sort of normal despite its bizarre outer appearance. After roaming the halls for a few minutes Ichigo became almost hopelessly lost in the familiar and constant halls of this school. Starting to get annoyed, he just started opening class rooms, hoping to find a faculty member who could give him directions. After an annoyingly long amount of time, Ichigo opened a local classroom with a crescent moon sign hanging outside of it and noticed someone inside it. It was a muscular, dark-skinned man with braided hair and black Japanese tattoos on both his arms; he was wearing a pair of sneakers, some blue jeans and a dark green muscle shirt as well.

The moment Ichigo opened the door the man turned to him and glared at him, "Who are you? You're not a student here, I know every student here personally, that's the kind of man I am."

Ichigo nearly sweat dropped at the seriousness this guy was radiating, "_'Sigh'_ my name is Ichigo Kurosaki, Kisuke Urahara told me to come here." he then pulled out the note Urahara gave him before leaving his shop, "Here this should explain something."

The man took the note from Ichigo and read it quickly, earning an annoyed glare from Ichigo when he started to chuckle at this whole situation.

"Sorry about that, can't be too careful, the names Sid, Sid Barret." Sid replied, tossing his arm around Ichigo's shoulder who luckily wasn't too annoyed at the moment.

"Follow me, I'll show you to the Death Room." Sid said before he walked out of the room with a confused Ichigo following behind him.

"Um…Death Room?" Ichigo asked.

"It's what we call Shinigami-sama's office."

"Why the hell would you call his office the 'Death Room" Ichigo asked, again.

Sid actually chuckled at that, "You'll see kid, it'll be explained when we get there I swear, that's the kind of man I am."

It took them a few minutes but soon Sid and Ichigo arrived a huge set of double doors. The two of them entered the room and were greeted by the second most bizarre sight Ichigo had seen that day (that freaky sun is still the number one weirdest thing Ichigo had ever seen Period). The first thing they saw was a pathway decorated with guillotines, something that not only freaked out Ichigo but also nearly made Sid burst out laughing when he saw Ichigo's face. The next thing the young Shinigami noticed was the enormous amount of gravestones that surrounded the desert like area that made up most of the room itself. And finally in the very Center of the room was a tall black figure.

"Ah Sid, I see you brought our guest! Very Good! Now come on guys, times a wasting!" The figure announced despite not even looking at the two of them.

Sid nudged Ichigo forward, "Come on kid, it's not wise to keep the boss waiting."

Despite the bad feeling burning in his stomach (yea the giant guillotines had nothing to do with it), Ichigo made his way down the path, with Sid following him with his hands in his pockets and a smug grin on his face. It took a few moments to reach the room's center (it's a long path), but once he did Ichigo got a clear view of this 'Shinigami-sama'. He seems to wear a black robe with many jagged edges which appears to house his arms and covers his entire body; his face is being covered by a cartoonish skull mask as well.

"Ah bout time you guys got here, I nearly fell asleep while waiting for you two." Shinigami-sama said in a goofy voice. "Now then, we might as well get down to business Kurosaki-kun!"

_'Good lord, not again'_ "Ya…wait how do you know my name?" Ichigo asked.

"Ah! Kisuke told me all about you, such a tragedy my boy, I'm dearly sorry for your loss." Shinigami-sama said in a much more sincere voice.

Ichigo flinched at this, what did Urahara tell this guy…or what didn't he tell him. When Urahara was concerned, it could be either one. "Ya…me too." Ichigo replied with a more monotone voice.

"Ah let's not think about that right? I'm sure you've got plenty of questions for me right?" Shinigami-sama quickly said, clapping his giant cartoony hands together.

"Ya, for one thing…how in the hell are you a shinigami? I've seen some weird looking Shinigami before but you take the cake!" Ichigo exclaimed, pointing directly at Shinigami-sama's mask.

"Oh Yes, that issue can be clean up easily! You see I'm very different from other shinigami such as yourself, unlike you I have my…" Shinigami started to explain but was so rudely interrupted by Sid, who looked downright dumbstruck by both of Ichigo's and Shinigami's claims.

"Um, you're a shinigami?" he asked, pointing to Ichigo.

"A Substitute but yes, so?"

"It's just that…you look nothing like Shinigami-sama, with that in mind it's kind of hard to believe you're a shinigami…" Sid said, looking slightly unconvinced.

Ichigo just sent Sid and annoyed glance. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a strange looking glove."Do you mind?" He asked the strange Shinigami while putting on the glove. He really had to thank Rukia for letting him keep this stupid thing.(1)

Shinigami-sama took a look at the strange glove Ichigo had and then at Sid, he continued going back and forth between the two for a few moments until he stopped and looked at Ichigo with an amused look on his mask. "As long as nothings permanent."

"Wait, what?" Sid said, now completely confused.

But before he could react in the slightest, Ichigo walked over to Sid and flicked him in the forehead with his gloved hand. For a few seconds it appeared like nothing had happened, but out of nowhere Sid's eyes lost all of their life and he suddenly collapsed to the ground. But even though his body was currently laying on the ground, Everyone could see that Sid was still standing, but he was not only separate from his body but he also had a long chain attached to his chest. Sid's face could be described as a mess of two emotions, confused and scared shitless. Ichigo was just standing there enjoying the sight; he always wondered why Rukia had that smug smile every time she used that glove on him, well now he knew why.

"The HELL?" Sid screamed, much to the pain of Ichigo's ears.

Ichigo sighed for about the fiftieth time today, this was getting annoying, "This glove allows me to separate a person's soul from his body without killing them. As long as that chain in intact, you're safe." Ichigo explained, directly pointing to the chain attached to Sid's chest.

"What…the…hell." Sid replied, his voice as strained with both furious anger and nervousness…much to his embarrassment.

"Well then, now that that's out of the way!" Shinigami-sama suddenly interrupted, trying to break to tension between his two guests. "I'll explain everything over some tea!"

Suddenly Three chairs and a table appeared in the center of the room. Shinigami himself just took a seat with a amused look on his mask, Ichigo just shrugged and did the same while Sid was still trying to get back inside his own body. After a few minutes, which Ichigo and shinigami spent just talking about random things (basically what Ichigo thought of the city and such) and Sid finally got back into his body (although he keeps saying something doesn't feel right), someone entered the Death Room with some tea in his hands and an bored look on his face.

"I've got the Tea, now where the…who's the kid?" The man said, eyeing Ichigo suspiciously.

"Ah Spirit! This is the young Shinigami Kisuke told us about!"

"My name is Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki." Ichigo added.

Spirit continued to look at Ichigo suspiciously even when he passed out tea to everyone (expect Sid, who did want to be anywhere near Ichigo), "You serious? This kid doesn't look like a Shinigami at all…"

Sid instantly froze up at that question, Shinigami merely sighed at his friend's foolishness, and Ichigo had a tick mark pulsating on his head. Without any warning, Ichigo shot up from his seat, slowly walked towards Spirit, who had no idea what the hell was going on, and socked him in the chin (with his gloved hand), sending his newly disembodied soul flying across the room and into one of the local gravestones headfirst.

Shinigami took a sip of his tea, not at all phased by this situation, "Nice shot."

Ichigo himself just sat down on one of the local chairs and finally took off the strange glove, much to Sid's relief, "Thanks, I've had a lot of practice." Picking up his own tea cup, Ichigo tuned to face his host, "Now, as you were saying…"

"Ah yes, now as I was saying, unlike you and other shinigami from the Soul Society, my Zanpakuto is constantly in its full release, and I don't mean shikai like your massive cleaver, I mean Bankai."

Ichigo look vaguely interested, "You mean all of that…" Ichigo was inferring to Shinigami-sama's appearance, "…is your Bankai?"

"Oh yes! While I didn't always look like this, I had to alter my appearance when I opened this school…I kind of scared the children away at first." Shinigami explained, sort of embarrassed at the end of his sentence.

"Anyway, about this school…" Ichigo said, trying to get off their current subject, he was more interested in the place he would be working for.

"Ah course! Many years ago I founded this school for a single reason, to protect the world of the living from the threat of the Kishin!" Shinigami exclaimed with much enthusiasm, despite the confused look on Ichigo face.

"A Kishin? What's a Kishin?" Ichigo questioned.

"A Kishin is a human with great spiritual pressure or 'Soul wavelength', which is what we call it around here, which has taken up eating human souls to gain power." Shinigami explained while making hand gestures for some odd reason.

"They sound a lot like hollows…"

"Well yes and no, Hollows eat human souls to try and fill the void in their hearts that were made after they died. But evil humans do it just for the raw power they can bring, which is why I've made a few changes around the world!" Shinigami replied, somehow giving Ichigo a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Um...changes?" he asked, still not sure he'd want to hear the answer.

Clapping his gigantic cartoonish hands together Shinigami stood up from his chair and walked over to his mirror. Once he got close enough, Shinigami simply touched the mirror with his index finger to the surface of glass. A few seconds later a clear image of the school itself appeared. He then pointed to the top of the school.

"Do you see those three orbs floating there?" Ichigo nodded in response.

"These orbs amplify a single wavelength throughout the world, although it doesn't affect areas that have high spiritual activity however like Katakura town for example." Shinigami explained before gesturing if Ichigo was following him or not.

Ichigo just nodded in response, wanting to know more about whatever the old man was talking about.

"This wavelength makes sure that everyone in its radiance has their souls directly to the Soul Society while leaving behind the spiritual power that all Kishins crave. "

It took a few moments but then it clicked, "basically…"

"Basically as long as they are within the wavelength signal, no human soul will ever have to live through the experience of being devoured by a Hollow again."

Ichigo was at awe at this, he could only imagine the repercussions this had to cause. Even if the souls didn't remember the event once they came to the Soul Society, the fact that they had to once experience being eaten alive by a hollow is something no being, alive or dead should ever have to feel. But with this…all of that was in the past, if only it could have been around when…

"How long has it been active?" Ichigo asked.

"Since I founded this school about a hundred years ago, I would have had it up sooner but…"

"The Central 46 denied it? I'm not surprised." Ichigo interrupted, he knew of the Soul Society's government when it came to new ideas, they were never accustom to change.

"Ah yes, they never change no matter who they are. " The two Shinigami just sat there in silence before the older of the two put his goofy persona back on, "Well then Kurosaki-kun, tell me about yourself."

This took Ichigo by surprise, "Didn't Kisuke already tell you about me?"

The old headmaster simple rested against his chair and had his head in his hands, "He did somewhat, all he told me was why you came here and what you are. Other than that….nothing." he said with a shrug.

Whatever old Hat a' Clogs didn't tell this old man was undoubtedly important. So it was easy to say Ichigo was nervous at the thought of telling anyone about his past, especially when it came to a certain white skinned subject. But the moment the old Shinigami noticed the nervousness that his guest he came out and said it.

"Ichigo," The young Shinigami looked into the face of the masked man, "No matter what you say to me, I will listen. I won't say a single word until you're finished, I swear it."

And with that bode of trust Ichigo started his story, everything. He began at the start, just a little bit about his childhood while staying way from a few touché subjects. His tale truly started when he described the night he gained his powers in the first place, to protect his family. He went through everything, his time being a substitute with Rukia, rushing through the Soul Society itself to free her, and even protecting his town from Arrancar. By the time he was done an hour had passed, Sid left about halfway through to get the school ready for the next school, but Spirit and Shinigami-sama were still waiting patiently for him to finish.

Standing up from his seat, Shinigami-sama stretched out his arms, "Well that was quite a story Kurosaki-kun," he then turned to the clock on the far left wall (one that appeared out of nowhere if you asked Ichigo and Spirit), " Well then, it's gotten pretty late now…"

"Wait a moment, so you don't care about my…?" Ichigo interrupted, concerned about his future at this school.

The Shinigami just shook his head at the young boy,"Ichigo, what could of headmaster would I be if I was to treat you badly for something that you could not control?"

Ichigo just sat there in silence, "You're not the only one who has been blamed for something they have no control of here. As long as you are not a threat to my school and its students, you'll be welcome here."

"Thank you Shinigami-sama."

The Shinigami just waved it off, "You don't need to thank me Ichigo. Now then, its late now, it's about time we all turn in for the night."

Now that's a thought that he did not consider where would he stay for the night? Could stay with this old Shinigami? '_Hell No!'_ How about ask his friend Spirit? '_Am I Insane!'_ He could go find Sid and ask him, _'No…could give the guy a heart attack'_. But before he could think of anymore options, he was thrown a set of keys by the mask wearing Shinigami.

"These are for a fairly nice apartment, I hope you enjoy it. "

Taking a glance at the keys (and noticing the skull keychain attached to it) Ichigo did something none would ever think he would do, he did a quite bow to the Shinigami and quickly said, "Thank you Shinigami-sama."

Once again the Shinigami simply waved it off, "No big deal, no you better get going now. You don't to be keeping that little kitty waiting do you?"

It took a few moments to sink in, but when the sudden realization set in Ichigo suddenly cursed, "Shit! I've got to go, See you tomorrow Shinigami-sama!" And with that Ichigo shot out of the Death Room in speeds that could only be matched by a bankai infused hollowfied Visard.

With a slack jaw, Spirit could only stand in awe at the incredible speed this young boy possessed. Slowly locking his jaw back into place Spirit took a glance at his surpiorer and couldn't stop his jaw from nearly dropping to the floor again. For the almighty Shinigami of death was rolling of the floor laughing his head off. Sighing to himself, Spirit walked over to the table and picked up the tea set and began to exit the Death Room himself, but before he did so he muttered one thing to his boss.

"You're going to make his life a living hell while here aren't you?"

The Shinigami finally stopped laughing ad turned to look at his weapon. Wiping his tears from his mask, the masked guardian nearly whispered something, "I have no idea what you're talking about Spirit"

"Not at all."

**Back with Ichigo.**

It took a few moments but soon enough Ichigo found himself once again outside of the schools front entrance. Imminently he took notice of the lack of light outside he quickly took note that it was late in the evening. Taking a quick glance at his surroundings Ichigo could help but notice the fantastic view. And even with that crazy looking moon (which nearly gave Ichigo a heart attack the moment he saw it, it was defiantly creepier than that grinning sun from earlier) Ichigo had to admit that the city had a glorious beauty to it even at night.

But realizing that he was getting side tracked, Ichigo turned his head to the guard railing from earlier. His eyes softened at the sight of the sleeping form of Blair (who was in her cat form again).

Sighing to himself he quietly walked over to the napping feline and scoped her into his arms before beginning his long walk back into the city.

**Ichigo's new Apartment: Five Minutes later.**

It took a few minutes but soon enough Ichigo arrived at his new home. It was a decent sized apartment building with a few different colored pieces in odd place. After finding an elevator and finding his way to his room, Ichigo was almost shocked at the size of the place. It had a decent sized living area that also had a small kitchen area built into it. After he also noticed two rooms that seemed to be a pair of bedrooms, and along with the bathroom he decided it was actually a nice place to live.

But before exploring even further into his new place he quickly snatched a soft pillow and laid it on the table. Calmly placing the sleeping kitten onto the soft surface, Ichigo then spent the next few minutes unpacking his belongings from his duffle bag.

After getting everything unpacked and sorted into the appropriate places he glanced at the clock. Noticing that it was a little bit after one in the morning Ichigo decided to head for bed for the time being. Grabbing a change of clothes he then turned off the lights and headed to his bedroom, all while unnoticing Blair's eyes slowly following him throughout the apartment. Quietly jumping down from the table Blair slowly made her way into Ichigo's bedroom, being as quiet as her kitty form allowed her.

Poking her head slowing into the doorframe, Blair was surprised by the sight of Ichigo changing into a new set of clothes for the rest of the night. With a slight blush appearing on her checks, Blair's mind went into overdrive at the shear fantasies she imagined with Ichigo. But while these thoughts rushed throughout her head, she didn't notice Ichigo finish getting dressed and climb into bed. The only thing that finally broke her from her mental fantasies was the moment Ichigo turned the lights off.

Sighing to herself, Blair slowly turned around and headed back to her makeshift bed on the kitchen table. But before she could take more than a few steps she was halted by the feeling of two hands picking her up.

"Hey…you lonely?" Ichigo's tired voiced asked her.

Slowly turning her head around, Ichigo calmly carried the small black cat back towards his bead. After climbing back in, he gently placed her at the foot of his bed. Seeing his furry friend comfortable Ichigo calmly drifted off into a nice restful sleep.

But Blair on the other hand couldn't believe what had happened. This random stranger had appeared out of nowhere and befriended her. He let into his home and even offered her a nice place to sleep, one she might add was located right next to him! Silently giggling to herself, Blair slowly and gently tiptoed over to Ichigo's slumbering form and curled up right next to him. Snuggling up next to her new friend Blair gladly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

_"Night Ichigo…"_

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><p>There we go, Chapter 2 done!<p>

[Note]:I hope you accept the explanation for the lack of Hollow's and Pulses (Bleach's human souls) in the Soul Eater universe. I really needed a reason for the changes in the world, and seeing that there was never a reason given for the those orbs floating above the school I used them.

[Note]:If you want to think about Ichigo's apartment, think of it as basically a copy of Moka's and Soul's very own but more barren since he just moved in.

1).If you're not aware of Ichigo's glove then you didn't watch the first few episodes of Bleach. It's the same glove that Rukia used on Ichigo before they made contact with Kon. The same one that she smacked Ichigo in the head with when he needed to kill a hollow. Called the '**Gokon Tekkō**'

2).Ichigo was refering to the cheerful attitude that Urahara always displayed around him, much like Shinigami-sama does.

Well, Next time on Soul Eater's Shinigami, Ichigo learns and interesting secret and goes into battle!


	3. Kittens and Knifes

Heres chapter Three of Soul Eater's Shinigami!

Please read the Auther notes at the end of the chapter before you review please, it'll holpefully answer some questions you may have after this chapter.

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><p>The night surprisingly went by in a flash for Ichigo, no nightmares, no painful memories, just a peaceful night of dreamless sleep. A few hours later, a few beams of the newly risen sun shined through the window and unfortunately landed right on the sleeping shinigami's face. Groaning due to the discomfort of the sudden light Ichigo tried to roll to his side in an attempt to get a few more minutes of sleep, but when he did so he met with a sudden surprise. After laying his head back onto the pillow, out of the sun's reach, Ichigo felt something soft touch his nose. Not caring what it was, Ichigo slowly lifted his arm and attempted to brush his nose. But before his hand could even reach his nose his hand briefly touched something smooth and delicate and before he could even question that he heard a sudden giggle.<p>

That was the final straw, Ichigo's eyes shot open and slowly glanced at his bed. To say that he was surprised would be a complete understatement for how Ichigo was feeling at this moment.

For what he saw was a beautiful raven haired young women in a very form fitting pair of nighty pajamas calmly snuggling herself into his chest. Now normally Ichigo would have already jumped out of the bed and be demanding answers from the girl, but there was one interesting fact that was preventing this.

It was the pair of cat ears on top of her head and the sight of a tail rapping itself around his leg. At the sight of those interesting features, Ichigo slowly turned his head to look around the room, looking for a certain house guest of his. And after seeing not trace of that curious feline, one thought entered Ichigo's already spinning mind.

"_Another Yourichi?..." _He then noticed the clothes she was wearing, _"…At least she's not naked…"_

Sighing to himself, Ichigo gently reached over and nudged the sleeping neko . "Blair? Time to get up Blair…"

The kitten's ears only twitched at his request and rapped her arms around the Shinigami, "Five more minutes Ichi…Blair's sleepy."

Sighing to himself, Ichigo gently pulled himself up into a sitting position. Once comfortable, he then gently pried himself out of Blair's surprisingly strong hug, much to her displeasure though. He then looked at his guest with as much displeasure he could currently muster, but due to her overall appearance, it wasn't that much. With her current features displayed in this manner, Ichigo couldn't deny that she looked incredibly cute right now.

A few moments later Blair's eyes finally opened and looked at Ichigo with a little fear.

"Morning Ichigo…" she said, turning away from the young boy.

"Morning Blair would you like to explain something to me?" he replied.

Looking guilty, Blair slowly pulled away from Ichigo and got a twelve inches between them before she said anything, "I'm sorry Ichi, I was just afraid at how would you react to me like this…"

Ichigo put on a smug smile, "Well this was a surprising way to tell me."

Frowning to herself, Blair tried to get up and walk away, but before she could even take a single step Ichigo grabbed her arm and looked at her with a sad frown. "I'm not mad Blair, I'm just surprised, it's not every day you go to sleep with a kitty sleeping at the foot of your bed and wake up with a cute girl against your chest."

Ichigo couldn't help but blush at the end of his sentence. _"That so did not come out right…"_

Blair didn't say anything but she did blush a little at what Ichigo said. Ichigo did his best to suppress his own blush and motioned Blair to sit back down, which she did after a few seconds of uneasiness. "Now why don't you tell me what's wrong?" Ichigo asked.

Looking into his eyes, Blair mentally prayed for a good outcome to all of this, "A lot of people in this city try to avoid me; some even hate me for what I can do…." She looked into Ichigo's eyes, "I can do magic, and because of that people think I'm a witch! Please don't hate me!"

Ichigo didn't react the way Blair thought he would, his eyes only widened a little at her announcement and that was nowhere near as bad as she thought it would be, she thought he would scream at her and maybe even try to kill her, not this.

"I've been told about Witches Blair, how they are evil, scheming, and monsters who will manipulate anyone to do their bidding despite the pain they'll cause…" Blair turned away, waiting for the inevitable, "and Blair? For what I've seen, you're nothing like that."

That very moment shocked Blair more than anything; there was no screaming, no death threats, no hateful words. There was only this boy who had let her into his home, who she had told her most painful secret and there he was, smiling at her with no ill emotions at all, even, see some affection in his brown eyes.

"But…y-you don't even know me, why do you…how do you…" Blair was almost in tears, the thought of a person that trusted her despite the threat she could bring was nearly overwhelming.

"Blair…" he calmly said, looking her in the eyes, "I've met people who were treated like you before. I was told they were evil creatures, monsters who wouldn't even think before trying to tear me to bits."

Blair could only shiver at the thought of the creatures Ichigo was describing, "And for the most part they were right, there were a few in particular that were monsters to even their own kind."

"But, when I entered their home I met three who were different, I can only describe them as…" Ichigo stopped for a moment when he noticed the terrified look on Blair's face. While normally he would try to calm someone down when they acted like this, Ichigo could only think of her reaction when finished.

"…complete and utter goofballs."

After hearing that Blair nearly fell off the bed in surprise, after all of that, that's how he describes them?

"They loved to play tag, ask stupid questions, and could never take a single thing seriously." Ichigo said with a small smile, remembering those fond memories.

"And they were my friends, despite the reaction the others gave them I trusted them, and they trusted me."

Blair was speechless; she couldn't help but envy the treatment Ichigo's friends received.

"Do you see now, I trust you Blair, and witch or not, I trust you…" And to prove his point, Ichigo gently embraced the stressed girl and gave her a warm hug. "…and I swear I'll never hurt you, I promise."

Blair couldn't take it anymore, years of living by herself, years of people treating her like a witch; all of it was destroyed the moment this boy promised her something she never thought would happen. And in the heat of the moment, Blair returned his hug a hundred fold, nearly snapping the Shinigami in half. But Ichigo didn't mind, he had a lot of experience when it came to inhumanly strong hugs. It took a few moments but soon enough Blair calmed down and loosened her grip on Ichigo. Slowly wiping her tears from her eyes, Blair looked up at Ichigo with a genuine smile on her face.

Seeing this, Ichigo returned the smile (although noticeably smaller), "Better?"

"Yes, thank you Ichigo." Blair replied, still wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Good." Ichigo then slowly pulled himself from the bed and walked towards the door. But before he exited the room he turned back to Blair with his small smile still on his face. "You can go back to sleep if you want, I've got to get ready before I meet Shinigami-sama today."

"Ichigo?"

Ichigo stopped and turned back to see Blair still sitting on his bed, her tail wagging back and forth in a joyful manor, and a smile on her face. "Thank you."

Ichigo didn't say anything; he just turned around and nodded to her, glad that he could protect someone else, even if it was from their own loneliness.

**About 25 minutes later:**

After a quick shower, getting dressed with a pair of blue jeans, a simple white shirt and a brown jacket (he did that in the bathroom, his bedroom may have not been the best choice at the moment), and got some breakfast. After placing some leftovers in the fridge, Ichigo walked back into his bedroom and grabbed Zangetsu and his badge. But before he made his way out, he noticed Blair sitting in his doorway, back in her cat form.

"Can I come with you, Ichi?" she asked, not surprising Ichigo that she could talk while in kitty form one bit.

"But Blair, you know where I'm going; I thought you didn't like it there?"

Blair didn't say anything; she just made a quick jump and landed on Ichigo's shoulders. She began to hug her head against his check affectionately before replying. "But I'll be fine with you won't I! Please?"

Ichigo suddenly found it very hard to resist the affection of the small kitten, _"Curse you Yoruichi and your cat like Antics! I've got resistance to this because of you!"_

Less than a few moments later Ichigo couldn't take it anymore and gave into her demands, "Okay, you can come with me." But he then looked at sternly, making her flinch, "But you stay close to me got it? I don't you out of my sight for a moment."

In return Ichigo got an excited nod from the black kitty, which noticeably didn't stop her affectionate snuggling with Ichigo's head. With nothing else to do, Ichigo and Blair together left the apartment and began their long walk towards the Academy. While on their way there, Ichigo did get a much more lively experience of the city's daily life. By the time the Shinigami arrived there, it was passed midday and nearly everyone had already finished with work, but now the streets were bustling with excitement and people who were going about their everyday lives.

And while Ichigo was enjoying the sights, Blair was enjoying the sight of her new friend. But while admiring her new friend, she had time to look at the interesting weapon attached to his back. It was very strange to her, she had seen many interesting blades before but this was just plan strange. But before she could think about it any further the loose cloth that was wrapped around its hilt brushed against her nose. Being a cat had their advantage, that's something Blair couldn't deny, but this sudden need to play with cloth and string was something she wished she was without at this moment.

But before she got too into this, the annoyed sound of Ichigo's voice rang in her ears. "Oi! Don't mess with that, Zangetsu really doesn't like people messing with that."

But that mention of a name brought a question to Blair's mind, "Whose Zangetsu Ichigo? Nya?"

Mentally slapping himself for mentioning his zanpakuto's name, Ichigo just replied with as little details as possible. "He's my sword"

Blair chocked her head in a confused way, "You named your sword? That's silly nya."

Ichigo just chuckled to himself after hearing an annoyed grunt from his Zanpakuto, "It's not as silly as you may think Blair. You should meet some friends of mine; their swords have got much goofy names than Zangetsu."

"Really? Can I meet them Ichi?" Blair asked, getting excited at the idea of meeting some of Ichigo's friends.

"Someday Blair, maybe someday…"

**About ten minutes later:**

It took a few minutes but soon enough Ichigo and Blair reached the entrance of the School and proceeded inside. Now Ichigo did notice Blair's blatant fear of entering the school, he quickly reassured her that as long as he was around, not a single person would lay even a finger on her without her permission, hell he even told her he would take on Shinigami-sama if he needed to. Finally after a few minutes of walking, the two of them finally made it to the death room's entrance.

When they entered Blair couldn't help but be amazed at the sight of Shinigami-sama's private office. True it was a place she had being in great fear of for most of her life, but with Ichigo next to her, all of those fears and dread just vanished. It was sa very interesting experience for the kitty, at least until she saw him.

The source of her dead, the grim reaper of all magical forces in the free world, Shinigami.

But while she was petrified with fear she didn't notice a hand suddenly start to scratch her behind her ears. It took a lot of effort but Blair was able to look past the pleasure she got from this action and looked towards the source. She saw Ichigo calmly scratching her behind her ears, a smile, no matter how small it was, instantly turned her fears to dust.

"Ah Kurosaki-kun! Good to have you back!" the Shinigami announced before spying the kitty in Ichigo's hands, "…and who's your little friend?"

Ichigo nearly chuckled at the greeting. He had to admit that despite the strange appearance this guy was somehow a lot less creepy than Urahara was…somehow.

_/Meanwhile/_

"ACHOO!"

Kisuke Urahara suddenly sneezed. Now being sick was something Kisuke never really liked, and being the Captain of the twelfth Division, no matter how short his time was it gave him a lot of resources. He would never admit it to anyone but in his spare time he was able to create a cure to the common cold…ya if anyone ever found out about that (ESPEACILALY Captain Unohana)…it wouldn't be pretty.

But anyway it's simple to say that he very rarely got sick, and so when he sneezed his only thought on the cause of it was simple.

"Ooh, someone's talking about me~ maybe it's a hot lad-'SMACK'."

But before he could even finish his statement, a small sandal struck him across the face, sending him flying across the room into the front doors of his shop.

"Finish that statement baldy and I'll END you…" Hiyori added before turning back to her card game.

"So mean…"

_/Back to the plot/_

Ichigo nodded at his new employer and continued to make his way towards the center on of the room. Once he reached the center he noticed not only that Shinigami-sama was staring at him but he also saw Spirit randomly glancing at the mirror positioned behind him. But once Ichigo looked back at his host, he was startled to see the Shinigami less than a few feet away from him and was looking directly at Blair. The three of them stood there few a few moments, not a word was shared between them, it was complete silence. And then with the speed unseen by anyone Shinigami-sama plucked Blair from Ichigo's hands within a millisecond. Blair and Ichigo froze at this. Ichigo's hand slowly inched to Zangetsu and Blair's eyes widened in fear, both waiting for his reaction.

But if course, they didn't put into account the randomness of the local Soul Reaper.

"Oh she's so cute! Where did you find her Kurosaki-kun!"

The person who had scared the living daylights' out of Blair for the past few years of her life was twirling her in the air and was making comments about how cute she was…ya didn't see that coming.

Ichigo released a sigh of relief, he was glad nothing happened that would have forced his hand.

"Her name is Blair." Ichigo said, but the Shinigami didn't seem to notice, "…um Shinigami…Hey! You wanted to talk to me about something….Hello?"

After a few moments Ichigo was finally able to draw Shinigami-sama's attention away from the frightened kitty and back to Ichigo. Slightly embarrassed by his actions, the death god handed Blair back to the teenager and was about to get back to the task at hand. But before he could do so he heard a chuckle coming from behind him. Turning his head around, the headmaster glared the source of his anger, his own death scythe was trying to hold back a side splitting chuckle and he was failing epically.

"One second." He grumbled to his guests before turning his eyes to his weapon. "Oh Spirit…what's so funny?"

Ichigo and Blair could only watch in amusement as the annoyed Shinigami approached his weapon, his knuckles cracking with every step he took. Spirit on the other hand had realized his mistake and was already trying to calm the force of head injuries in his life down, but it was no use.

While Shinigami-sama was teaching his friend better 'manners' Ichigo turned his eyes to Blair in concern. "You ok?"

Blair turned her gaze off the comedic scene before them and matched Ichigo gaze, "I thought was going to…" she then smiled at him, "…I just didn't expect him to react that way…it was kind of funny."

This got even Ichigo to crack a smile, "Ya, that was pretty funny."

The two of them shared a quick laugh among them before they noticed Shinigami-sama walking back over to them. They almost busted out laughing when they saw Spirit's mangled form laying a few feet behind the Shinigami but was able to hold it back.

"Ah, now then where were we?" Shinigami asked while dusting off his hands, "Ah yes, we have much to discuss Ichigo." And with that the ancient Shinigami turned his back to hem and head back to the center of his office but not before gesturing them to follow. Shrugging to himself, Ichigo placed Blair in his shoulders and followed. Once again the two Shinigami sat down at the headmaster's randomly appearing table, and to Ichigo and Blair's surprise was once again served tea by Spirit (who somehow was able to recover from Shinigami-sama's savage beating…like it's happened before).

"Now then Ichigo," Shinigami said before taking sip of his tea, "We have much to discuss."

"Such as?" Ichigo replied while avoiding the tea, things was getting kind of weird for his taste.

"Well…I kind of need something from you."

"Like what?" Ichigo asked, something just didn't feel right.

"I need you to Fight."

It was like a flash of lighting. It was so quick that Blair nearly fell off of his shoulders. In a flash Ichigo shot up from his seat and grabbed the approaching figure. Both Blair and Shinigami-sama were shocked at the sight before them. Ichigo and a newly dressed Sid were standing there, with Ichigo gripping Sid's extended arm and Sid calmly trying to free his hand, which was lightly pressing his knife against the boy's neck.

Neither of them said anything, but soon enough Shinigami-sama was the one who broke the silence. "There wasn't that much that Kisuke told me about you Ichigo."

Ichigo, still glaring at Sid momentarily glanced at the older Shinigami while he continued his speech.

"Now while he did say something about your great spiritual power, I feel it is necessary to see some of your abilities in person, and so…" He then made a gestured towards Sid, "...I asked Sid to duel you, weather you wanted to or not."

Ichigo just signed in annoyance at the news, "You could have just asked."

"Ya, we could of but….this was more fun." Sid replied, getting Ichigo to turn his attention back to the knife fighter.

"Speaking of which…" Sid then pointed to Ichigo's grip on his arm with his free hand, "Do you mind?"

With a grunt Ichigo released his grip on the man, leaving a fairly dark burse on Sid's Forearm.

Rubbing the burse on his wrist, Sid chuckled, "Heh, you've got quite a grip on ya kid."

The young Shinigami grumbled something under his breath, turning away from his future opponent. Turning his attention away from Sid, Ichigo then took notice of furry friend on his shoulder. Seeing how Blair had been far too quite during this exchange, Ichigo kindly scratched the kitten under her chin. Blair, being terrified at the previous scene, welcomed the glorious feeling this action and even began purring. After seeing his friend's reaction, Ichigo barley glanced at the Shinigami standing behind him.

"So we going to do this here?" he asked.

"Oh Hell No!" Shinigami-sama exclaimed, "My office cannot take anymore abuse. Look over there for a moment." He then pointed over to the far right side of the room.

Ichigo and Blair briefly looked over to that section of the room. Now while the rest of the death room was made up of a plain dessert-like landscape covered in tombstones, this section was different. Scattered among the ground was a series of slash marks and scars that looked like they belonged to a sharp weapon or two. There were also a few massive craters the size of a SUV littering the ground.

"Last time it was a certain student of mine and Spirit." He said while glancing at his death scythe, "I believe he over reacted when said student badmouthed his daughter."

The duo both had a single eyebrow raise at that statement, but they were totally surprised by the sudden outburst from Spirit.

"That Bastard deserved it! How dare he speak in such a way about my sweet Maka! It's unforgivable!" Spirit continued on his daughter infused rant for about five more minutes until a familiar action happened.

"**Shinigami Chop!**" The sound of Spirit's head slamming into the ground was a something everyone in this school (aside from Blair and Ichigo) had become accustom to.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times Spirit…" The Shinigami shook his head, "…While Maka-chan is a sweet girl, Nobody wants to hear you boast about her." He then turned his attention back to his guests.

"Sid, can you take these two to the training ground?"

Getting a nod from his employee, the Shinigami then turned back to the recovering form of his weapon, "I'll join you all in a minute, I need to teach Sprit here some manners."

The Shinigami, cat and knife meister quickly bowed his respect and left the death room in a moment's notice, but not before hearing a small yelp of fear from the resident death scythe.

**A Few Minutes Later, Training Ground:**

A few moments of silence and the echoes of Spirits screams of pain later the trio finally arrived at the Academy's training ground. It was a fairly large indoor area, it even reminded somewhat of Urahara's training grounds he had under his shop and the one under the Visard's previous hideout.

After a few minutes of waiting around the three of them were finally joined by a satisfied looking Shinigami-sama.

"Enjoy yourself?" Sid asked with a smirk.

"OH yes! " The Shinigami replied before turning his gaze towards Ichigo and Blair.

"Now then," he then made a gesture towards the kitty on Ichigo's shoulder, "It would be best if Blair-chan would join me over here Ichigo, it'll be much safer."

While Ichigo understood the logic in the Shinigami's words, Blair's sadness in her eyes nearly made him reconsider. So in response to her depressing gaze, he lightly picked her up off his shoulder and gazed into her eyes, holding her only a few inches away from his face.

"I'll be right here, ok?" He didn't even wait for her to reply, "I swear, nothing will happen to you."

Blair just sat there in the young man's arms, staring into his brown eyes. After moments of silence, Blair just nodded unconsciously while still staring into Ichigo's eyes. Satisfied with her answer, Ichigo quickly walked over to where the older Shinigami was standing and gently placed the kitten on the ground. And after giving her a small Pr on the head for good measure, he returned to his position opposite of Sid.

Taking a small glance at the daydreaming kitty, Shinigami-sama couldn't help but notice the goofy look in her eyes, But after putting that aside, the masked man turned his attention back towards the two opponents.

"Prepare yourselves…"

Sid was already in a fighting position, his knife pointed directly at the orange hair in front of him. Ichigo on the other hand was currently searching his pockets, momentarily forgetting where he placed his badge. But unknown to him, the oldest of the three was tired of waiting.

"BEGAN!"

Ichigo instantly looked at the Shinigami with a shocked expression, "Wait, What!"

But before anyone could say anything else Sid was already in Ichigo's face.

Sid was unleashing a series of slashes and cuts with his knife. But sense Ichigo had not yet found his combat badge or even had the time to pull Zangetsu off his back, all he could do was dodge out of the way of every strike, nearly getting his neck sliced open multiple times. Luckily Ichigo has had aot of practice when it came to dodging sudden strikes that came out of nowhere, Sid most likely didn't have to deal with his insane father every morning.

But soon enough Sid's insane amounts of strikes started to leave their mark on Ichigo.

Ichigo's constant backtracking soon led to having his back being against the far wall of the training ground. With Ichigo's back against the wall, Sid couldn't help but smirk. Unleashing a massive kick, Sid nearly smashed Ichigo's head into the concrete wall. But he was shocked to see his target's head slide to the side at the last second.

Taking advantage of this moment, Ichigo grabbed Sid's extended limb and tossed him as far as he could. Unfortunately for him, Sid, being as athletic as he is, merely did a back flip and launched himself back at Ichigo. While it didn't give him nearly as much time to find his combat badge, he was able to pull his Zanpakuto off his back and used it to block Sid's knife. The two of them just stood there, glaring at each other while their weapons grinded against each other.

"Heh , after all of this I thought you'd be better than this kid." Sid boasted, really annoying Ichigo.

_'I'm going to beat the shit out of your cocky ass once I find that badge….Where the hell is IT?" _Ichigo mentally screamed to himself.

Annoyed with this whole mess, Ichigo nailed Sid with a head butt and kicked him away. But that didn't stall the knife fighter for long since Sid easily brushed it off and continued with his assault. But with Zangetsu in his hands, Ichigo was able to block and even return some his own strikes towards Sid. Sid on the other hand was surprised by how this kid could wield such a large blade so easily and swiftly. But while he was surprised by this, he was also tired of this kid not focusing on the match at hand. With a swift kick to the side of the head Sid sent Ichigo to the ground.

Seeing this as his chance, Sid leaped into the air with his knife in hand. Ichigo was surprised to see his knife transform into a large gravestone in a flash of purple energy.

"Living End!" Sid called out, preparing to smash his tombstone against Ichigo's head as he descended in the air.

Seeing the approaching hazard, Ichigo prepared to defend himself with Zangetsu. But while getting it into position he felt something in his coat pocket. Reaching into his coat, Ichigo grabbed the object moments before he was stuck.

In the distance, Blair and the old Shinigami next to her both witnessed a massive explosion of Soul Energy, climaxing in the shape of a massive purple cross. The reactions of the two observers were very different. Blair was outright horrified with the sight; the very idea of her new friend dying in the massive explosion shook her to the core. Shinigami on the other hand just looked onward, an interested gaze in his eyes.

As the smoke generated from his attack cleared Sid leaned over his weapon in a attempt to get a good view of his handy work. He expected to see the crushed form of the orange haired boy positioned under the tombstone, but he was not expecting what he saw instead. The first thing he saw was the blade of Ichigo's sword in a defensive position against the bottom of the tombstone. But before he could notice the physical appearance of the young shinigami something small hit him upside the head.

Catching the item in his free hand Sid's eyes widened at the sight of it.

Ichigo's Combat badge.

"Found it."

Them without any warning, Sid quickly found himself launched back into the air by a massive ark of blue spiritual energy. Regaining his bearings, Sid quickly transformed his weapon back into a knife and landed safely on the ground. But before he could even think of anything, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him with speed unlike anything the meister had seen before and delivered a devastating slash to his chest.

Ichigo now stood there in his Shihakusho with Zangetsu over his shoulder. What shocked Sid the mast was not his sudden change in appearance or the sudden power radiating off him, but it was the eerie grin on his face.

But despite the voice in the back of his mind that was telling him to run like hell, Sid rushed the shinigami and attacked.

But this time, Ichigo was easily able to mach him blow to blow and even knocked the skilled assassin off his feet. With this easy opening, Ichigo gripped his zanpakuto with both hands and lifted it over his head. Then with one strong swing, Ichigo unleashed a massive ark of blue spirit energy. It was so massive that not only did Sid barley get out of the way of it, but it also created a massive scar in the ground.

While Sid was distracted with the aftermath of a attack that could have torn him to bits, Ichigo suddenly appeared next to him with a flash of Shunpo. Seeing the surprised look, Ichigo grabbed him by the face (1) and slammed him fiercely into the ground. In response to this, Sid kicked the Shinigami off him and quickly transformed his knife back into its tombstone form for a quick attack. But before he could even swing, Ichigo disappeared in another burst of Shunpo and reappeared in the air above them.

And with a single strong swing of his zanpakuto, Ichigo called out, "Getsuga Tenshou!"(2)

Sid's, Blair's and even Shinigami-sama's eyes widened at the destructive display unleashed upon them, and before anyone could say a word the blinding light consumed the entire area.

After a few moments the intense light finally died down and revealed the devastation it caused. The entire ground had been torn to pieces, huge chunks missing and pieces were even lodged in the ceiling. The two spectators of the battle even had to move out of the way of the powerful attack's aftershock. With the use of his jets the old Shinigami was able to dodge the destruction while holding the amazed kitten in his hands.

After everything calmed down, Ichigo reappeared on the field looking sort of surprised by his own attack. But when he noticed a lack of a knife wielding local trying to kill him he became worried that he killed him.

"Sid! You there?...shit...Shit!...SHIT!"

"Ah stop yelling kid," Ichigo stopped his efforts the moment he heard that voice, "Uh…good lord my head…that's gona hurt in the morning."

The source of the voice was revealed when the ground suddenly slit open and a fairly large stone coffin rose up out of nowhere. Much to Ichigo's relief when the lid was removed a very much alive Sid stepped out. But of course he wasn't without his injuries; there were multiple cuts and scratches from his ordeal as well as a nasty gash over his left arm.

"Thank god, I thought I killed your annoying ass." Ichigo muttered, not meaning for anyone to hear him.

"Ah don't worry kid; it'll take a lot more than that to take care of me!" Sid said, patting Ichigo on the back, unknowingly getting an icey glare from the annoyed Shinigami.

"Really? Do you want to test your luck?" Sid's eyes widened as an eerie grin appeared on Ichigo's face.

But before anymore craziness could commence, Shinigami –sama wisely stepped in between the two of them, "Now then, there's no need for more violence Kurosaki-kun, you've easily passed my test despite the fact Sid stood no chance against you in the first place."

"Hey! I was doing fine until he found that badge of his…" Sid defended himself.

"That badge is the only reason why you have any movement in your limbs right now," The Shinigami determinedly cut him off before continuing his rant, "If I had allowed Ichigo to use his true power from the start then not only would you still have lost but you may even be dead right now."

Ichigo's eyes starting twitching, "You did that on Purpose!"

Shinigami-sama only shrugged, "I had to give him a chance didn't I? Besides a lot of the children would be sad to see their '_Favorite'_ teacher died."

_"If I'm their favorite teacher then why are like half of them asleep for most of my class?" _Sid grumbled under his breath.

Clapping his big goofy hands together Shinigami-sama dragged Ichigo's attention back to him, "Anyway! That's enough for today Sid, Mira-kun?"

Then, much to Ichigo's surprise, Sid's knife erupted in a flash of purple energy. When the light finally cleared there was no longer a knife strapped to the back of Sid's belt. Instead there was a women standing about a foot away from the meister. She had very light blue eyes and dark skin, her hair was also tired in a series of dreadlocks. How she was dressed was also a major surprise as well, since most of her upper body was dressed in only bandages while the rest of her was dressed in a more military style.

"Yes Shinigami-sama?" he replied, respectful of her superior.

"Could you take Sid-kun to the Nurse's office? I'd like his injuries to be taken care of before school tomorrow."

Nygus nodded, "Of course Shinigami-sama."

Nygus then slowly lead Sid out of the training area. All the while Sid continued to glare daggers at the young shinigami before openly declaring something directly at the boy. "I expect a rematch kid, no holds barred."

Ichigo didn't say anything, all he did was nod. Seemingly satisfied with his answer, Sid finally vanished from view, descending into the hallways of the school with his weapon by his side. With his former opponent gone from his gaze, Ichigo turned his attention back to his host, dumbstruck expression still evident on his face.

"What...the hell…was that?" Ichigo was confused, plain and simple.

Shinigami –sama just looked at him with a innocent expression, "You just agreed to a rematch with Sid-kun, I don't see how that is..."

"Not That! I mean the girl who changed into a friggen knife…or a knife that transformed into a lady…whatever, WHAT THE HELL just happened?" Ichigo interrupted the old man, extremely annoyed by the situation.

Now it was the old shinigami's turn to be confused, "What? I told you about Weapons and Meisters didn't I? I'm almost sure I did…"

"No you did not!"

"Oh..." the shinigami was rather embarrassed by his forgetfulness, or that is at least what he wanted Ichigo to think.

"…well that's a subject that'll take far too long to explain…" And then goes the thinking pose.

And while his host was off in his own little world, Ichigo turned his attention to his little house guest. It turns out that sometime after Ichigo nearly killed Sid, Blair had passed out from the sheer stress of all the recent excitement. Taking the sleeping kitten in his arms, Ichigo noticed the old death god finally come to his senses.

"...Well let's just say that Meisters are humans with large amount soul Wavelength while Weapons are…well humans who can transform into weapons, there's no better way for me to describe it."The Shinigami shrugged.

Noticing the _'Get on with it before I smash your face in' _glare aimed at him, he quickly stuck one of hands into the invisible left pocket.

"Anyways….I have something for you, just let me find it…"

The next few minutes were spent watching the old shinigami dig though the endless void that made up his cloak. Hell, before long he even started pulling things out of nowhere that were completely random, things like a rubber ducky, a can of paint, a stop sign, and even a pop corn machine. And all the time he was doing this Ichigo could even hear him mutter things to himself like…

"…nope…that's not t it…I lost that last week…where the hell did that even come from?..."

But soon enough the shinigami's eyes shined with success when he finally pulled the item he was looking for out of his pocket with a, "Found it!"

Tossing the item to the young boy, who caught it with his free hand, shinigami noticed the even more annoyed look on the boy's face.

"Seriously?"

Ichigo was just about three seconds away from smashing this guy's face in with as much force he could muster. It had to be a joke right? In Ichigo's hand was an oversized recreation of Shinigami-sama's mask. Sure it was bigger than the real one and had a cloth tied around the back of it but it was still looked like something a person would buy at a gift shop. Noticing the tick mark pulsating on Ichigo's forehead, Shinigami-sama decided to explain before he had to get a new mask.

"Seeing how you do not have your own weapon like the rest of my students and faculty members here at this school, this device will serve as a replacement."

Seeing that Ichigo seemed less tempted to smash a hole in his face, he continued.

"This will be used to hold the various Kishin eggs you collect during missions I'll be sending you on." Ichigo raised an eyebrow at that. Missions? You have got to be joking.

"You know how I told you about the Kishins right?" Ichigo nodded, "Well for a person to become a Kishin they have to consume a large number of human souls."

Seeing that Ichigo understood, the shinigami continued, "Knowing that, the other teachers and I set up assignments that the students can accept to eliminate such humans before they can truly become Kishins."

Ichigo stopped him right there, "Don't you think that's a little dangerous? What if they can't handle the mission they picked?"

Ichigo didn't miss the shinigami quickly turn away from him and scratch the side of his head, "Well they have to get it approved by the receptionist before they can go on the mission, though some have gotten past that sometimes…" The shinigami muttered, thinking of a certain loud mouthed, blue haired ninja.

But before the orange haired could say anything about his response, the shinigami quickly changed the subject. "Anyway! That's enough for today; you should spend the rest of the day exploring the city! See the sites, go have some fun!"

"Wait a moment! What about my…"

Unfortunately for Ichigo, he and his furry friend were nearly thrown out of the school and had the door locked on them. With his nerves burning with the urge to smash his way back into the school and force the old man to answer his question, Ichigo just sighed to himself and did something he wasn't known for, he let the issue drop. After returning to his body, the young Visard gently laid the sleeping Blair on his shoulder and turned his attention back to the city.

Maybe he could find something interesting in his new home, well that or something very annoying. With Ichigo's luck it was hard to guess what could happen.

**Meanwhile back inside the Training Grounds:**

"Did you remember to tell him about school tomorrow right?"

The Shinigami slowly turned his gaze from the destroyed remains of the training ground to the newly arrived Spirit. Now sporting a few bandages on his forehead and such, the death sight was pleasantly surprised at the current state of the area. Ok pleasantly surprised is not the best choice of words…totally dumbfounded or stupefied would work so much better.

"What the hell did I miss?" The scythe suddenly blurted out, causing the shinigami to chuckle in response.

"Oh nothing much. Just Sid and Kurosaki-kun having a little sparing match."

Spirit just looked at him with a 'WTF" expression, "Sparing match? It looks more like the time Black Star tried to make a fireworks display with those fifteen crates of TNT…" (3)

"Oh god, don't remind me of that…man it two days to get fires out…" The shinigami moaned at the very memory.

"At least the little brat helped put out the fires…" Spirit whispered but was once again interrupted by the headmaster.

"Put out the fires? That nutcase made them Bigger!"

"True…anyway how the hell did those two do all of this damage during the time I was gone? I was only gone for like…eleven minutes." Spirit said, trying to get off the dreaded Fourth of July TNT explosion subject.

"Believe it or not but it was Ichigo who did most of the damage, hell he nearly sliced Sid in half with a single attack." Now this left Spirit dumbstruck, the very idea of that little kid nearly killing Sid of all people was very hard to take in.

The shinigami calmly walked past the frozen state of his personal weapon, "That boy is much more powerful than you can believe my friend. There is much he has yet to show us both."

"Is he truly that powerful?" Spirit nearly whispered, still unconvinced.

The shinigami suddenly turned around and chuckled, "And you want to know what the funny thing is?"

Spirit didn't reply, still trying to process the information.

"When the boy first unleashed his true power there was something I noticed. There was something strapped to his arm." Noticing that Spirit had yet to connect the dots he continued.

"Just don't annoy him any further Spirit, I don't want to have to mop your remains off the floor." And with that final thought, the old Shinigami left the training grounds, returning to his office on the other side of the school.

But a few moments after being left alone for an unknown amount of time, a forgotten question suddenly returned to Spirit.

"So I take it you forgot to tell the kid about school tomorrow, right?"

* * *

><p>And there is chapter 3 for all of you, butbefore I go let me explain two things that may confuse (or piss off) some of your reading this chapter.<p>

To address Blair's sudden OCCness. In the original manga and anime, Blair was always pictured as cheerful, fun loving, and happy. Now seeing how there was a mission at the school saying that she was a witch, than it would imply that others would believe she was a witch and in turn treat her horriably. I like characters who's personality makes sense with how their life has treated them so far, so it would make more sense for Blair's happy goofy personality to be just a mask she wears to hide her pain.

Yes, at the end of the chapter Shinigmai-sama noticed a strange device strapped to Ichigo's shoulder after he activated the combat badge. If any of you can not understand what this is then let me explain. I'm sure that most of you were confused why Ichigo, who still has all of his powers in this fic, didn't completely destroy Sid the moment he used his powers. Well lets just say that device is similar to Zaraki Kenpachi's eyepatch. Now I won't explain the other details right now like how much power it limits, just expect all that info in a few chapters.

[Note]: If you didn't know who Ichigo was a talking about with Blair, it was Nel and the other Arrancar that helped them in Hueco Mundo.

(1) - All credit for this move goes to Hollow Ichigo, all hail the creator of the epic Face Grab of Doom!

(2) - Everyone knows that an attack is more powerful if you call out its name when you preform it, or atleast thats how it workds in most anime/manga...

(3) - I'm still not sure if I'll explain BlackStar's 'incident' more, maybe later...or if he blows something up again...

One more little note for the readers, I want to know who should visit Ichigo first in this fic: Kenpachi, Yourichi, or Hitusgaya and Rangiku? There will be others who visit him in this fic but these are the three who I want to go first, So its your pick just review your choice and the highest of them wil appear in an upcoming chapter.

Anyway, next time Ichigo finds some annoying information in the morninig and meets someone (Guess who!) who will piss him off more than Renji ever did. See you then.


	4. School? Seriously!

Sorry about how long it took to get this one out, this chapter was a pian to write...so much stuff is happeneing in here.

_"I'm so bored..."_-Inner Hollow

**"Oh shut it." **-Zangetsu

"Will you both Shut Up!"- normal Speaking

_'Go will those two never stop talking?'- _Thinking

* * *

><p>Yesterday was actually kind of mellow compared to most of Ichigo's recent life, or at least that's what he would say on the matter. After leaving the school Ichigo and Blair (who woke up soon after Ichigo finished climbing back down the stairs) explored a bit of the city, with Blair telling him about a couple of interesting spots to visit. After a couple of a hours of being a pack mule for Blair (who returned to her human form in much more casual attire) the duo returned to Ichigo's apartment.<p>

"That was so Fun Ichi! I've never had so much fun shopping before!" Blair gleefully skips into the apartment with two shopping bags in her hands.

"Ya…so much fun." Ichigo grumpily replied, struggling to fit the mountain of bags in his hands through the doorway.

Laying the dozens of bags on the kitchen table, Ichigo collapsed onto his coach in exhaustion. You'd think that after all the times he had to carry loads of shopping bags whenever he went along with Rukia, Rangiku, and Orihime on those shopping trips he'd be used to it by now. Well would be wrong. Sure the Substitute shinigami could fight for hours with Zangetsu in his hands and the only things that would hurt would be his wounds. But when it comes to a pile of bags filled with clothes, shoes, and other womanly things and his arms nearly turned to mush.

And before long Ichigo felt a pair of arms rap around his own. Turning slightly, Ichigo blushed heavily at the sight of Blair. She had her head resting calmly on his shoulder while she sat joyfully by his side.

"That was great Ichi! I've never had that much fun while shopping before, you made it so much better!"

Then without warning, Blair pecked Ichigo on the cheek, "Thank you."

With his blush still in full affect, Ichigo barley made a response, "S-sure…"

"Great!" Blair then suddenly jumped off the coach, "I think I'll go take a bath now, is that ok Ichigo?"

With his mind nearly fried from the last few seconds Ichigo nodded in response.

"Thanks Ichi." And with that Blair grabbed one of the dozens of bags she bought today and headed off towards the bathroom, leaving a silent and blushing Ichigo behind.

After hearing the sound of the door closing and the fan being turned on Ichigo just lend back in his seat and mumbled to himself, "When did I agree to have a neko as a roommate?"

But the silence of his own thoughts was shattered when the sound of a person's giggling erupted from the kitchen. Bursting to his feet Ichigo grabbed his Zanpakuto and rushed into said kitchen with full intent of beating the unholy crap out of whoever invaded his new home. But seeing how the kitchen and living room was basically the same place it was easily to notice that no one was there.

Searching his head in confusion, Ichigo mentally wondered where that voice had came from. While all the while he didn't notice the random gleam coming off the mirror hanging above the stove.

**Meanwhile at the DWMA:**

"Spirit! What have I told you about spying on people with my viewing mirror?"

Spirit instantly paled, "Shinigami-sama...I was just…um…"

"**_Shinigami Chop!_**"

**Back at Ichigo's Apartment:**

Sighing to himself, Ichigo just past it off as wind and headed back to his room. Once there he gently laid Zangetsu against the wall, kicked off his shoes, and flopped onto his bed. This time alone had given him time to think about certain things, things like what his friends had been up to while he has been gone.

Sure he had to have some idea of what they were doing, like how Ishida most likely had the hollow situation under control even without despite that weird ass fashion state of his. He was sure that Tastuki was still hanging out with Orihime, boy did he pity her if she had to try any of Orihime's disgusting recipes.

And when it came to Chad…well Chad is Chad, almost impossible to tell what's going on in this mind.

But when it came to the others, well he couldn't but wonder what was up with them. Where did the Vizards go after all the mess from the war blew over? Where was Rukia staying if not at his house? Was Renji still mooching off Urahara? Wait scratch that, its Renji of course he is.

These thoughts and theories of what could be happening in his home town continued to spin inside of his mind, so much so that he didn't hear the sound of the shower turn off. When he finally returned to his senses Ichigo heard someone open his door. Turning his head slightly, Ichigo's eyes widened at the sight.

In the doorway was Blair. Her hair was down, her cat features were showing, and she was even wearing a pair of purple pajamas that she had bought earlier that very day, but these weren't the reason Ichigo was so surprised. Part of it had to do with the fact that the upper half of her shirt was almost completely unbuttoned, revealing a good portion of her well endowed bust. But what was really got Ichigo's attention was the playful look in her eyes; the very same look another certain cat he knew always gave him.

Blair on the other hand was nearly giggling at the reaction she was getting out of Ichigo, who would think teasing this boy would be so much fun? But after a few more seconds of Ichigo's awestruck silence, Blair decided to kick it up a notch.

"It is pretty late Ichi, about time for bed…" Blair purred before slowly making her way over to Ichigo's bed.

Ichigo didn't reply, his face getting redder with ever step closer Blair made herself.

Then like the cat she was, Blair leaped into the air and somehow landed right onto Ichigo's chest. The orange haired human nearly had a heart attack at this action, his blush growing even deeper despite being already so intense. Blair of course used this to her advantage and leaned in closer to her favorite strawberry.

"Why are so surprised Ichi? I'm just trying to get more comfy." Blair purred, her tail caressing Ichigo's cheek.

Ichigo was sweating bullets now. The sensation he was feeling, the closeness, all of this was too much for the young shinigami. Sure he's been through situations like this before, like when Yourichi was stripping naked while he was resting during his bankai training. But the sheer closeness of this situation was too much for the young boy to take. With the sight of Blair's nose being near centimeters Ichigo slammed his eyes shut, unable to take it anymore. But if he had waited for a few more seconds, he would have seen a smirk developing on a certain neko's face.

Seconds went by….nothing. The only thing Ichigo did feel was a sudden shift in weight on his torso.

Cracking his eyes open, Ichigo was greeted by the sight of a small black cat in a witch's hat playfully staring at him. "What's a matter Ichi? Disappointed? "

The twitch in Ichigo's eyes was answer enough. Why is it that every time a women teased him it would always end up like this? In Truth it always pissed Ichigo off, not that he would ever admit it though.

"_King! You always do this! You should let me out, I could easily get you some-"_

His hollow on the other hand was not so quite on the matter.

Soon after he had killed Aizen, Ichigo's Zanpakuto had once again separated into its two previous personalities, his Hollow and old man Zangetsu.

At least one thing good came out of that entire experience, the trio had finally started to get along with each other, and by that it means Ichigo and his Hollow didn't try to kill each other every time they saw each other.

But unfortunately (that's what Ichigo keeps saying) that also meant that the two of his inner world residents were also much more social. While it's true that Zangetsu was still the bold silent type, his hollow on the other hand felt it necessary to comment on nearly everything that happened to Ichigo.

'_Oh shut up, this is none of your business.'_

The hollow scoffed at this. _"Business my ass! When it comes to things like this I think I'm entitled to have a say in the matter. You let the last sexy cat girl get away from you and I don't want to miss out on this one!"_

'_Shut UP! I'm tired and going to bed. Either shut up and leave me alone or I'm going to come in there and kick your ass!'_ He really didn't want to deal with this right now.

"_Like you could take me…"_The hollow briefly muttered before disappearing into the dark reaches of Ichigo's inner world.

With that distraction finally out of his mind Ichigo returned his attention to his feline friend, who had a concerned look on her face. During the inner scrabble Ichigo was having with his hollow, Blair couldn't help but notice the raging emotions going through the boys head. To her it looked like he was having a silent conversation with someone and whoever it was had surely pissed him off.

"Are you ok Ichi?" Ichigo just sighed and patted the furry kitty on her head.

"I'm fine, let's just go to sleep." The kitty grinned back at the young vizard and snuggled back into his chest.

With that final remark, Ichigo reached over and shut off the lights. But before he could drift off into a dreamless sleep, Ichigo nudged the small black cat once more. "Blair?"

Yawning slightly, Blair cracked one of her eyes open and glanced at the orange haired boy, "Yes Ichigo?"

"When I wake up I better find you still like this tomorrow, got it?" If the lights weren't already off Ichigo would have seem one of the cutest pouts that have ever existed.

"Aw you're no fun Ichi…"

"_She's right you know" _His hollow commented before being forcibly dragged off to an unknown location by a certain annoyed sword.

Finally with both distractions out of his mind and his furry roommate soundly asleep next to him, Ichigo was able to drift into a dreamless sleep.

**The Next Morning, 6:25 am.**

There was darkness. All he could see was a endless abyss of pure darkness, no buildings, no people, no nothing, there was only pure nothingness amongst all the darkness. But then out of nowhere two lights, two beacons somehow appeared out of nowhere.

"Ichigo..."

He saw his sister, Yuzu. She was just as cheerful as ever, he gleaming smile ever so bright.

"…Ichigo…"

Then he saw his other little sister, Karin. Despite her normal clam personality, she had a small yet endearing smile on her face as well.

"…Ichigo!..."

They were running towards him, arms extended in preparation for the biggest hug. It was one of the greatest things he could imagine, his family, his most precious people in his arms, safe. But it didn't last. As they got in between five feet away from him he noticed a large dominating figure hovering behind them. Then out of the shadows four white masks exposed themselves, their teeth gleaming in bloodlust. He could only pale at the sight of a black blade slowly lifting itself in the air, its dark hilt attached to the figures arm. He tried to call out to his sister but all that came out was silence as he was forced to watch the blade come down and….

"ICHIGO!"

Ichigo shot upright at the sound of the sudden voice that fortunately broke him from his sudden nightmare. While looking around the room franticly he noticed a few things. Blair had surprisingly honored his request; she was still in her cat form and was somehow still sound asleep on a nearby pillow. But the more important thing he noticed was the mirror on his dresser. Instead of seeing his own reflection in the mirror he saw a familiar cartoony shinigami waving at him.

"What…the fu…" He nearly cursed outright before the shinigami greeted him.

"Ah Good Morning Kurosaki-kun! Have a good night Sleep?"

Ichigo's eyes twitched and did the thing he was most known for; he burst out of bed (waking Blair up in the process) and rushed over to his mirror. He scowled at the image of the Shinigami and poked the reflection in a attempt of make contact with his superior, "What the Hell are you doing in MY MIRROR?"

Shinigami-sama chuckled at that question, "Oh this?" he made a gesture to the mirror, "This is how I contact my students whenever they are outside of school grounds."

Seemingly satisfied with that answer (despite it being really creepy), Ichigo settled down and took a seat on the edge of his bed. After a few moments of thinking (which during that time Blair had taken a comfortable pouch on his shoulder) he final turned to glare at the mirror, "So what do you want?"

"Oh I just here to make sure you get up in time for school today." The twitch in Ichigo's eyes returned tenfold at this point.

"Oh that makes perfect sens-What the Hell are you talking about?"

Scratching the back of his head, the Shinigami looked away from his orange haired soon to be student, "I'm sure I told you about your enrollment in school today…"

"No you didn't." Ichigo's glare could have burnt though about a foot of concrete if he wanted it too.

"Really? I was sure that…"

"No you didn't." The Shinigami groaned as he turned his head to see Spirit, cup of coffee in his hands, calmly walking behind him. Oh he was going to get it after this, especially since he didn't miss the smug smile on his face. Resisting the urge to beat the unholy hell out of the weapon right here and now, the Shinigami turned his attention back to Ichigo and Blair.

"Since I forgot to tell you this last night…" he stopped momentarily when he had the feeling that Spirit sticking his tongue out at him. Glaring at the weapon mocking him, the shinigami quickly turned around, grabbed Spirit by his head, and flung him across the room into a pile of tombstones. With that annoyance out of the way he turned his attention back to his viewing mirror.

"I'd like you to attend my School!"

There was a silence that would have made even a cricket cringe. Ichigo was just surprised at the sudden request. Blair on the other hand was more doubtful then surprised, she of course didn't want Ichigo to go to the school if it meant she didn't get to go there with and there was no way in hell she would go to a school full of weapons and meister's. And the Shinigami was just waiting for an answer.

Scratching his head in annoyance, Ichigo just half glared at him, "What happens if I don't?"

If the shinigami had a mouth he would have smirked, "Well…without being a official meister I cannot officially allow you go on any missions…which means no fighting evil humans so…"

The realization dawned on Ichigo like a pile of bricks. He wanted to help the old man with the Kishin problem…but school? Really? Did he really have to go to another school? While the upside was that his duties wouldn't cause him to miss days like at his previous place of education, the downside was still constant. Did he really want to go through school again? But before Ichigo could make a clear decision, a loud voice made itself known in the deep pits of his inner world.

"_KING! I swear to all that is holy, if you refuse this offer I will fill you mind with endless dreams of one of your worst nightmares!" _His hollow really take no for an answer.

Ichigo on the other hand wasn't too scared, if anything he was pissed off, _'I swear to god if you're the one who's been making me see **that** every time I go to sleep I'll rip you a…."_

The hollow wisely interrupted him before he finished, _"No…that's not me, that's just your own twisted mind. I'm talking about sending you constant images of that stupid squeaky toy…I think its name was Kon…"_

While the idea of seeing Kon every time he went to sleep did make Ichigo slightly cringe, but to him it wasn't that bad. But that's until he heard the other being that resided in his inner world put in his own two cents into the equation.

"**For once, he's is right Ichigo…accept the offer."**

Ichigo was quite surprised at his normally quite Zanpakuto, _'Zangetsu?...'_

The sword spirit stopped him there, "**Think about this Ichigo. Accepting this offer will give you a chance to fight a new evil. These creatures, human or Kishin are as dangerous as Hollows themselves and you'll be protecting many innocent people by destroying them."**

With this piece of knowledge Ichigo cut the link with his inner world, leaving the two halves of his soul to each other's company. While their king was gone the hollow looked toward the sword spirit with a amused look on his white features, _"You told him that just because of your hatred for that bloody stuffed animal didn't you?"_

The Zanpakuto didn't openly reply to the hollow and just walked back towards his familiar resting spot. But before he was out of earshot the Hollow did hear him mumble something that sounded like '**_shut up..._**_'._ It made his already insanely huge smile even bigger when he heard that. (1)

Right after Ichigo cut off the connection with his inner world he noticed the stares directed at him. Blair was looking at him with the same expression she had the previous night, she was still concerned with what was happening with her friend. The Shinigami on the other hand was fully aware of what had happened in the young boy's mind, it was obvious that the boy was having a conversation with his Zanpakuto spirit and his inner world's other 'resident'.

Finally getting bored of all the waiting, Shinigami-sama finally spoke up, "Sooo, what do you say?"

Sighing to himself, Ichigo just let himself fall backwards onto the bed while letting Blair come to rest on his chest, all the while muttering an annoyed, "Yes, whatever…they'll kill me if I don't anyway."

Despite Blair being utterly confused with just what had exactly happened, the shinigami was utterly joyful at the success of his invitation to his school. At first he thought the boy would outright refuse his offer and he would have to take more drastic measures…like blackmailing him with the embarrassing pictures he got from Kisuke.

"Wonderful!" Ichigo really wanted to hit him right now but he didn't want to have to buy a new mirror as well. "Well, seeing how school is going to start in a half an hour I'll leave you to get ready."

That little piece of information made Ichigo burst upright while accidently sending Blair flying into the air. After catching the air flung kitty, Ichigo turned his shocked gaze towards the image of the shinigami, "What? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

The Shinigami actually chuckled at the young boy's reaction, "Don't be so grouchy Kurosaki-kun, today's just a day for you to get acquainted with the school. So it's not that big of a deal that you're late."

Understand his point, Ichigo sighed in relief and dropped back down onto his bed again, Blair still pressed against his chest for protection. "That's good…"

"Well now that that's taken care of I'll see you later Ichigo! Bye Bye!" And with that, the Shinigami's image vanished from the mirror, leaving nothing but Ichigo's and Blair's reflections staring back at them.

With a sigh, Ichigo got into a sitting position and starched his head in annoyance, "Urg, and here I thought I was done with school…" Looking down at his current roommate he noticed the sad look on Blair's normally cute kitty features. But that didn't really help her mood at all.

"Ichi…do your really have to go to that school?" her voice sounded like a mix of both depression and knowingness, like she knew what his answer was going to be. It reminded him of his sister on that day. The day he lied to them…the day they died.

"Ya…but I'll only be gone a few hours! I swear!" He really didn't want her to feel sad, especially if it was because of him in the first place.

"Promise?" Now she was sounding more hopeful than depressed.

A small smile was now appearing on the orange boy's face, "Promise."

With that Blair returned to her previous cheerful attitude and licked her friend's cheek before jumping off his lap. Lightly chuckling to himself, Ichigo got up from the bed and headed out of his room for a shower, leaving Blair to go back to sleep on one of the nearby pillows. But as he left the room, he didn't notice Blair transform back into her human form and go into a thinking pose.

"Oh, what to do…what to do…oh I forgot about Brush-san!" (2)

And with that, Blair jumped out of the bedroom window and made her way back to her home, where a certain brush has been deeply missing her.

**25 minutes later, the entrance to the DWMA:**

After taking a quick shower, getting dressed in a pair of jeans, a red tee-shirt, and his brown jacket, Ichigo locked his apartment's door and made his way towards the school. But of course before he left he did check up on Blair; imagine his surprise when he saw her gone and his bedroom window open to the entire world. Actually he wasn't that surprised to see her gone. Seeing how Yourichi had a thing for appearing and disappearing it wasn't too surprising to see Blair do something similar. Eh, maybe it was a cat thing.

Knowing that she could easily take care of herself, Ichigo just pushed any worrying thoughts aside and focused on what on earth could happen at this school today. There were multiple things that could happen, both good and bad. There was most likely going to be at least some kind of jerks at this place, making fun of his hair color or asking him annoying questions like why on earth he had a giant meat cleaver on his back. That was a given.

There was also a chance of meeting some nice and interesting people; hell two people currently residing in his mind knew he needed some friends.

But those thoughts aside, Ichigo returned to the world around him when he noticed a pair of familiar face waiting for him at the top of the school's steps. The first of the two was that knife wielding maniac Sid, who spent a good portion of the previous day trying to smash the young shinigami's face in with his weapon. The other person was Nygus, someone he only met briefly yesterday. Somehow (much to Ichigo's disbelief) she is the very weapon Sid had been trying to smash his face in with.

"Hey Ichigo!" Sid greeted him with cheeriness that nearly made Ichigo gage, "You're early…heh by five minutes."

Ichigo didn't bother to reply to that, instead he just glared at the knife meister and turned his attention to his partner. Seeing how the two of them didn't get a proper introduction (her nearly cutting his head off was not a proper way to meet someone) Ichigo tried to be as formal as possible, too bad he wasn't that good at it.

He extended his hand to greet her, "Hey, I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."

Nygus just nodded and shook his hand, "I know, Shinigami-sama informed me of you before our sparing match yesterday. I'm Mira Nygus, Sid's current Weapon partner."

The orange haired shinigami didn't say anything in response; he just put on a small smile and nodded in return. But before they could get into anymore pleasant conversation Sid made it this his time to interrupt them. "Now that you two are properly introduced," he turned his attention to Ichigo, "Nygus here is going to show you too the nurse's office while I head back to my class."

Ichigo could help but look wide eyed at the meister, "He was serious about you being a teacher? Really?"

A glare was instantly shot towards the orange haired boy, "Yes I teach, is that so hard to believe?"

Ichigo couldn't help but glance at Nygus, who really didn't show any emotion. It was kinda hard to believe that the guy who had nearly tried to kill him the day before was currently teaching a class full of children. But seeing how Ichigo knew a store keeper who was in secret a mad scientist and a insanely powerful shinigami, it wasn't that hard to believe.

Sid just shrugged the glances off and turned back to the school, "Whatever, I need to make sure my class hasn't destroyed each other yet, see you two later." And with that Sid went ahead of them and made his way back into the school.

Ichigo sent a worrying glance toward the nearby weapon, he didn't mean to piss off the guy that much. But she just shrugged her shoulders before gesturing the boy to follow her, "He's not been in the best mood of late, a _certain_ student of his has been causing a bit of trouble."

Ichigo understood what she was getting at; he still remembered how annoyed his high school teacher got with excuses he had to give when a hollow showed up.

"Anyway lets be off, I'd rather not keep the Nurse waiting."

And with that the two of them headed off into the school, all the while hearing some loud lid screaming something about surpassing god or what not, Ichigo really tried not to pay attention.

**About three minutes later: Nurse's office.**

Soon enough the two of them arrived at their destination. It was a fairly normal looking nurse's office. It held a desk, two cabinets, a couple of curtains that concealed two empty white beds and finally sink and mirror.

"Medusa ma'm, hope we're not too late for your liking." Nygus apologized politely to the figure sitting at the nearby table.

The figure, now identified as Medusa, looked over at the duo with a smile. She was a fairly tall woman wearing a black dress and a white doctor's coat as well as a pair of white shoes. Her hair was a blondish color and was fairly short, except for two fairly large strands that were braided down the front. With her yellow colored eyes looking at them, Ichigo couldn't help but feel _off_ when he saw her smile.

"That's quite alright Nygus." Medusa replied, waving off the apology as if it was nothing. "Anyway I'm sure you have plenty of things to do, I can take care of things from here."

"Hai." And with that Nygus vanished into the school's hall, leaving a sweat dropping Ichigo and an amused Medusa.

"Oh it's always so amusing to see her disappear like that..." She then turned her attention back towards her orange haired guest, "…anyway, it's nice to meet you Ichigo. I'm Medusa Gorgon, the School nurse."

Nodding in return, Ichigo put on a harmless smile, "The feelings mutual miss, now what exactly do you need me for?"

Medusa just nodded to herself and sat back into her chair. Grabbing a nearby file, she put a amused expression on before looking at the young boy, "Well like all students here, I'll need a physical from you. So if you'd be so kind to undress yourself we can begin."

That was something Ichigo wasn't expecting and Medusa could tell as such sense she could see his face becoming red at the end of her sentence. Meanwhile on Ichigo's end of the situation he was currently dealing with a familiar voice talking to him at one of the most inappropriate time he could think of. He was currently rambling on about how lucky Ichigo is, how stupid he was for not taking advantage of the current moment, and how he should be in charge. But after a few seconds of constant talking, Ichigo had enough of it.

'_Zangetsu, if you will.'_ Ichigo calmly asked, despite his current rage at the hollow.

"**Of course Ichigo." **Then a loud smack echoed throughout Ichigo's inner world, and then seconds later everything went quite. Meanwhile Medusa was quite intrigued by the sight. Seconds ago this boy was nearly crimson at the idea of taking his clothes in front of a well trained nurse, but now he was expressionless and had a faraway look in his eyes. Then, for a brief moment, she saw his eyes change. It only lasted for a brief second, but his eyes changed from his normal brown to a sickly yellow.

And in that quick moment of change she saw something, was it madness? No. It was something more than just madness. She saw something that transcended madness and insanity itself; she saw pure darkness, evil. But as quick as it appeared it vanished when Ichigo came back to the real world.

Sighing at the missed opportunity, Medusa walked over to the curtains and opened them partly, "Just step in here and undress yourself, I'll be there in a minute. "

Seeing no chance to argue, Ichigo reluctantly stepped through the curtains and took a seat on one of the empty beds. Soon enough Ichigo reluctantly removed Zangetsu from his back along with most of his clothes expect his boxers; there was no force in the Soul Society or even hell itself that would cause him to remove his boxers.

"Oh my…" Ichigo noticed Medusa was standing there, "No one has ever taken that seriously…I only really needed you to remove your shirt."

"Wha…" That was his only response as he stared at the nurse, his eye twitching constantly at the idea of the joke.

But before he could even start his raging rant Medusa started the physical. It was all a pretty simple procedure. Ichigo had to fill a small form about his past physical condition, previous illnesses, injuries, and even some private information. Meanwhile Medusa was conducting the other required parts of the physical like testing the boy's reflexes, breathing, and other such things. Humorously after both sides where finished with their parts of the examination Ichigo nearly had a heart attack when the nurse asked him to remove his boxers for the more important part of the examination.

Luckily for him, Medusa quickly reassured him that Shinigami-sama had informed her that it would not be necessary and told him the classroom number he was assigned to. After a nervous thank you and goodbye, Ichigo left the nurse's office with a relieved sigh. But if he had been a little more aware of his surroundings he would have noticed Medusa's previous cheerful expression change into a sinister and evil one.

'_Such a powerful Soul Wavelength…maybe I make some use of this boy…'_

As her grin widened, a small shadowy snake slithered out of her mouth at a single thought. Her mind flashed at that single moment when she saw something in Ichigo's eyes.

'_But that moment, those eyes…so sinister…so evil…I wonder…'_

**With Ichigo, Class Crescent Moon.**

After a few minutes of walking throughout the schools halls, Ichigo finally found the room Medusa had informed him about. As he stepped inside he was greeted by the sight of the very same classroom he had first met Sid in, although it was full of students this time. He also noticed Sid standing at the head of the classroom seeming teaching a lesion, or at least he was until he heard the door open. Expecting someone else, Sid slammed the book shut and looked toward the door.

"About time you got here Black…oh it's you..." Seeing Ichigo there instead, he quickly gathered the student's attention, "Everyone! Listen up!"

Everyone in the room turned their attention to Sid (and anyone who was asleep woke up from the sound of the book slamming shut). "We have a new student today who would like to introduce himself to you all," he nudged Ichigo, "Go ahead."

With a sigh Ichigo turned towards the mass of students in front of him, "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki; it's nice to meet you all." He said with as much sincerity he could muster, and to his credit it was more than he normally could.

Most of the class responded with a unanimous "HELLO ICHIGO" while a few others just grunted in his direction.

"Ok then, you can go take your seat Ichigo." Sid said before turning back to the class," Now then, where was I…" Sid just returned to where he last left off during his lecture while Ichigo walked over to one of the staircases.

While Ichigo walked through the room and up the steps he did hear a bunch of comments directed towards him. Many of these comments were focused on Zangetsu or the lack of a weapon partner, but much to Ichigo's surprise none of them were pointed towards his orange neon hair. Soon enough he found an open seat next to a small girl in pigtails who had her head in a book.

Soon after Ichigo made his way to his seat and made himself comfortable the girl looked up from her book and smiled at him, "HI, I'm Maka." She then extended her hand out to Ichigo in a friendly manor, which he gladly took.

"Ichigo." He replied, shaking her hand. _'So this is Spirit's daughter…she doesn't seem anything like that fruitcake..'_

"Nice to meet you." She said. Then she made a gesture toward the boy leaning back in the chair next to her, "This is Soul, my weapon partner,"

The boy didn't anything after Maka's introduction so she tried to get his attention, "Soul! Say something…" But before she was able to finish she noticed something alarming about him, he was asleep.

Her eye twitching and tick mark pulsating on her head, Ichigo could only watch as the girl shook with incredible rage before surprisingly calming down to a point where you'd never guess she was angry. Then without warning she lifted the book she was previously reading and spoke briefly before…

"Maka…CHOP!"

…Slamming the book directly on the boy's head, which for some reason reminded Ichigo of that chop Shinigami-sama used on that death scythe of his. The painful strike to his cranium made Soul painfully fall backwards out of his hair and onto the floor. He grumbled to himself before sending a slight glare towards his meister, "Ah…what the hell Maka? What the hell was that for?"

"Soul, this is Ichigo. He's new." Maka said, completely ignoring the glare Soul was sending at her.

Soul just grumbled to himself while settling back in his chair before turning towards Ichigo. While doing so Ichigo was able to get a good look at the kid. He had spiky white hair that was swept to the side and red eyes. He also had a sweatband around his head with a sticker with his name and the word E-A-T on it along with a yellow and black jacket and a pair of maroon pants.

After settling back in his chair Soul just shrugged in Ichigo's direction and let a uninterested "Hey." Escape from his mouth before closing his eyes once again.

Maka just sighed to herself and looked back to her new acquaintance with an apologetic look in her eyes, "Sorry about him, he's always like that."

Ichigo just waved it off, "Its fine."

After that the time just started to fly by for everyone. Soul had went back to sleep, much to Maka's annoyance. Maka of course paid attention to Sid's lecture, whatever it was. And Ichigo, having no idea what was going on just stared off into space. But then out of nowhere something smashed its way though one of the glass windows and landed in the center of the room…and for some reason Sid was glaring daggers at it.

The figure turned out to be a short looking kid with spiky blue hair and green eyes. His attire seem to consist of a sleeveless black shirt with a funnel-like collar, with white trousers that are black from the knee down and just a little short of being full length jeans. He also had gray fingerless gloves with heavy wrist weights and has a band going across the back of each hand, adorned with a star on his hands. Also for some reason Ichigo also noticed a star-like tattoo on one of the kid's shoulders.

The kid's stance just screamed arrogance, hell even his soul wavelength was full of itself. It was almost like looking at a tiny version of Byakuya…almost. Sure Byakuya was arrogant in his abilities and status but at least he was more stuck up about. But this kid? He just shoved his arrogance in everyone's faces.

Sure that's not what Ichigo thought at first…until he heard the kid speck.

"The Amazing BlackStar has Arrived!"

The amount of sweat drops in the room could have filled an entire pool if they could.

"You're late, BlackStar." The awkwardness seemed to shatter the moment Sid spoke up, causing everyone in the room, including the newly arrived Black Star, to look at him.

"Late? Heh, a being that shall surpass God such as me cannot be Late!" BlackStar shouted in response.

Sid didn't even bother to reply to that, all he did sigh to himself, open his book again and point Black Star to his seat. But before Black Star even made a move toward the stairs he noticed Ichigo sitting in the open seat that was almost directly above his own.

"Uh who's the guy with the freaky neon orange hair?"

That was not the best thing to say to the new student, especially since it was a visard with a attitude problem. The fact is that single statement created a lot of interesting thoughts throughout out the room and even some nor too surprising ones.

_'He's calling my hair freaky? He's the one whose hair looks like it came out of a kids crayon box!' _That was Ichigo, fuming over that hair comment.

_'That Idiot! If Ichigo tries to kill him I am NOT helping him.'_ Sid said that one while glancing at the book in his hands, trying to ignore the situation.

_'Black Star…Can't he go five minutes without insulting someone?' _That came from Maka, slightly annoyed with her classmate's behavior and also wondering where his weapon partner was.

_'Zzzz…zzz…zzz…'_ That was Soul, still asleep despite Black Star loud voice.

_'I'm so awesome! I can't begin to describe how Awesome I am!' _It's obvious who this was.

"Hey Kid…" The sound of Ichigo's voice brought Black Star out of his inner monologue.

Ichigo was now stand up from his seat and glare daggers at the blue haired boy, "What did you say about me?"

Black Star didn't say anything for a few moments but then in old fashion Black Star antics, he jumped into the air and landed on the desk right in front of Ichigo. With a grin bursting with his arrogance, Black Star's inched closer to Ichigo's while completely unaware how close he was to getting his face punched in.

"I said your hair color is freaky! You should be honored that a man as Big as myself is gracing you with his presence!" Scratch what was said earlier, Ichigo was going to ripe his mouth off in a few seconds. But while Ichigo was thinking of very nasty ways to kill this guy (his hollow of drawing some plans) he didn't notice Black Star spot Zangetsu.

"Hey!" With a smack to the head Ichigo glared at the very loud boy, "What's with the huge sword! You trying to upstage me!" Black Star's shouting finally ended when he grabbed Ichigo by the shirt and tried to lift him into the air…and failed miserably. The moment Black Star's hand touched Ichigo's shirt he was pushed over the edge. Ichigo grabbed a large chunk of Black Star's blue hair and tossed his far across the room, forcing him to slam painfully into the chalkboard behind Sid's desk.

Resting Zangetsu on his shoulder, Ichigo glared daggers at the loud ninja, "You're really pissing me off kid."

"Oh yea?" Black surprising launched himself back towards Ichigo, his hand pulsating with soul wavelength, "Let's see if you can take on a Big guy like me!"

Everyone was n edge at the sight of this scene. BlackStar was launching himself at the new kid with the intent to beat him senseless with his own Soul Wavelength while Ichigo was just standing there with a massive cleaver resting on his back, a look of complete relaxation on his face. To two of them were about to collide…at least they were until a loud booming voice interrupted Black Star concentration.

"SILENCE!" Sid's interruption caused BlackStar to freeze in midair and fall comically to the ground below. Ichigo on the other hand didn't have much of a reaction, if anything his eyes just started twitching even more.

"If the two of you are going to go at it then take it outside!" Sid shouted at the two of them.

BlackStar instantly launched himself up from the ground, a determined grin on his face. "That's fine with me! It lets me show the entire world how Big a man I am!" then without warning, BlackStar used the rows of student desks as stairs and launched himself though a window…the one right next to the same one he entered though. Ichigo on the other hand just stood there with a slack jaw expression, much like the rest of the class.

With a sigh, Ichigo set Zangetsu back on his back and made his way to the room's exit. Meanwhile everyone else in the Class just turned their attention back to Sid, who was gathering his teaching supplies. "What are you all waiting for? It's going to be an interesting show."

With the permission from their teacher, every student in the classroom grabbed whatever they needed (and Maka woke Soul up again via another chop from her book) and followed Ichigo and Sid outside to the school's entrance, were BlackStar headed after jumping out of the window.

But a few minutes after everyone had left the classroom, a young lady opened up the door with an embarrassed look on her face. She was rather tall girl with long black hair tied up in a ponytail and large indigo eyes. Her clothing was made up of a pale yellow, sleeveless outfit with a skirt end that has a slit down the side with a bright yellow star emblazoned on the right side of the chest. She also was wearing a dark brown scarf and a tight dark brown stocking on her right leg starting just above the knee and white boots.

"Sid-san, I'm sorry I'm late. I couldn't find BlackStar any…." The girl stopped when she noticed the classroom was completely empty.

"Huh? Where did everyone go?..."

**A few Minutes later, front entrance.**

Soon enough BlackStar's weapon, Tsubaki (who had been searching for him) finally arrived on the scene. After having the situation described to her by Maka, Tsubaki attempted to talk BlackStar out of his quarrel with the orange haired boy but met with limited success.

The two opponents stood across from each other. On the right was Ichigo, Zangetsu resting on his shoulders and his combat badge in his other hand. On the left were BlackStar and the reluctant Tsubaki, the boy grinning like a fool and the girl sighing with displeasure.

Ichigo couldn't help but glance at Tsubaki with sympathy, "I've got against you miss, this is between me and the loud mouth next to you."

"I'm sorry, but despite how much trouble he is BlackStar is my Meister, and I will stand by my Meister to the end." Tsubaki replied, her words unknowingly getting a nod of understanding from the local Sword spirit residing inside Ichigo's soul.

"Let's do this Tsubaki! Let's show this guy why I'm going to surpass God!" BlackStar exclaimed, completely ignoring everything that was said in the last few minutes.

The rage in Ichigo's gut exploded forth at the very mention of those words, "That's it." Unbuckling his Combat badge from his belt, Ichigo slammed it into his chest, much to the confusion of everyone else. In a flash his normal clothes disappeared and in place of them were a Shihakusho, red sash, and a strange shoulder pad on his left arm. Everyone was surprised by the change in clothes, although Tsubaki was even more so because of her familiarity with such style of clothing. But of everyone Maka was the most shocked, not because of any outer changes, but because of his Soul Wavelength.

"I was going go easy on you…" He then stuffed his badge into one of his pockets, "…but now you've pissed me off."

BlackStar actually laughed at Ichigo's words while Tsubaki looked on with displeasure, "Hah, enough talk! Let's do this!" he then turned to his weapon, "Tsubaki! Chain Scythe form!"

"Right!" She responded before disappearing in a bright light, transforming into the form of a long metal chain with each end of the chain tipped with a yellow handle that has a small double-edged and double-pointed scythe blade attached. BlackStar instantly caught the weapon and began twirling it in confidence. Ichigo didn't reply to this at all, he just continued to rap his forearm with the endless cloth that was present on Zangetsu's hilt.

"Let's show the guy how its…**_SMASH_**"

Before he was even able to finish his sentence BlackStar dove out of the way of an insanely fast attack. When the smoke cleared everyone was shocked to see Ichigo's massive cleaver, Zangetsu, sticking out of the ground where BlackStar previously stood. Then without warning, the blade dislodged itself from the ground and flew back to its owner, who caught it with ease. It was at this point that everyone (well expect BlackStar) had figured out what Ichigo had done to his weapon.

Using the seemingly endless clothe around Zangetsu's hilt, Ichigo turned his blade into a rip like weapon (3). But where he got the idea was anyone's guess…well everyone's expect a certain hollow's that its.

BlackStar, annoyed by the fact that Ichigo had stolen the spotlight rushed the orange haired shinigami with a vengeance "Speed Star!"

With his enhanced speed BlackStar was able to quickly close the distance between the two of them fairly quickly. But the moment he was in striking distance of the boy he disappeared in a burst of shunpo, causing BlackStar to completely miss. Ad before he could even regain his balance BlackStar was nearly beheaded by a flying Zangetsu.

_'How can he be so fast?...' _Tsubaki couldn't help but worry, he meister had nearly been sliced in have twice now by this boy and he had yet even to lay a finger on him. Where was this boy's power coming from?

For the next few moments all BlackStar could do was dodging. There wasn't that much he could do with a giant meat cleaver somehow flying towards him with impossible speeds was not something he had trained to avoid. Ichigo himself was even flying all over the place, switching between trying to slice BlackStar in half up close and personal to just tossing his blade in a deadly fashion. But while dodging, an actual good popped into that normally empty head of his.

During a brief moment of rest, which was Ichigo just spinning Zangetsu in the air by its cloth, wondering when to throw, BlackStar took his chance. The moment before Ichigo tossed Zangetsu BlackStar somehow made the chains suddenly formed coils around him before extending outward, forming the shape of a five-point star. The next time Zangetsu nearly collided with BlackStar he sprung his trap.

"Trap Star!"

The moment the massive cleaver smashed into the ground the chains started moving, the quickly surrounded and ensnared the sword. The kid was about to laugh at his personal victory against his orange haired opponent but was interrupted by Tsubaki. "BlackStar I can't hold it for long! Hurry up and…"

She didn't manage to finish, in the corner of her I she saw something that nearly scared the wits out of her, "BlackStar! Watch Out!"

The confident ninja quickly turned his head to see a shocking sight. Since he could not get Zangetsu to come back to him, Ichigo simply went to Zangetsu. Because his sword was now stuck in the ground, with enough of a head start, Ichigo was able to fling himself at his blue haired opponent. With incredible speeds Ichigo was in BlackStar's face in no time at all and with one strong kick to the head, sent the meister flying.

"BlackStar!" Tsubaki called, fearful for her friend's safety. But she was unable to rush over to her meister seeing how Ichigo was now standing right next to her. Her eyes widened as his hands took hold of his Zanpakuto's hilt, but those fears somehow vanished as the orange haired boy gently unwrapped her weapon form's chains from his sword and laid them gently on the ground. But before she could even question this, BlackStar called out to her.

"Tsubaki! Ninja Sword!" Of course she responded, instantly flying into the air and transforming into the desired weapon.

The caused Ichigo to sigh in disappointment, he was hoping he could get the girl out of this fight so he could deal with this kid. He had nothing against her; she was just a loyal friend who wanted to help her partner. That was something he could respect.

Seeing that his two opponents were ready he leap at them with a burst of shunpo. But the moment he got within striking distance of the boy he noticed something was amiss. The boy didn't seem right, he wasn't being loud, he wasn't attack, and it didn't seem like him. It turns out it wasn't. BlackStar suddenly turned a dirty broken color and blew away in the wind, leaving the image of Tsubaki in his place.

"Dummy Star." She said simply, and then he struck.

"Certain Kill! BlackStar Big Wave!"

The impact was instantaneous. The feeling of two fists smashing into his back was painful enough, but then there was the release of his soul wavelength. The destructive release of BlackStar's wavelength almost filled the entire area for a few moments before dying down, leaving everyone in awe. Everyone thought it was over, BlackStar had hit the new kid with his most devastating move and it was over. Right? Turns out it wasn't.

Before BlackStar could even make a move, Ichigo swung his Zanpakuto to the side and slammed its flat side into the kids shoulder, sending him flying for about three feet. Everyone was surprised by this, how in the hell did this kid stay standing after being hit directly with BlackStar signature move? That just doesn't happen; no one besides the teacher could do that.

But what happened next was what truly shocked everyone. Maka could even see Sid's eyes widen when they all saw Ichigo lift his sword into the air. Then with two simple words, he brought everyone's worlds crashing down.

"Getsuga Tenshou."

The ark of energy was massive. Nearly everyone had to shield their eyes from the intense light. Tsubaki screamed for BlackStar but the noise caused by the destructive wave of energy drowned out all sound in the area. All the while Ichigo just looked onward, an expressionless mask upon his face.

Soon enough the intense light, the deafening noise, all of it died down and revealed something no one expected. Sitting right next to all the destruction the attack caused was BlackStar, completely unharmed and looking scared shitless.

On BlackStar's end of things everything was quite. The sight of his most devastating attack failing him was annoying but not unheard of; he was ready to try again in a moment's notice. But when he saw that ark of pure energy coming straight towards him it was terrifying. Now imagine all that fear, all that terror, and then have the powerful force of death…miss. After the massive ark of energy disappeared and its aftershock dispersed everyone saw BlackStar, unharmed and sitting right **next **to the scared earth that Ichigo's attack left behind.

_'How could he miss like an attack like that?...'_ that was the response that most of the class had, except two of them.

_'There's no way he could miss with something like that…which means…'_ Maka thought to herself, still shocked by the events of this duel.

_'…he missed on purpose! He was never going to hurt BlackStar!...too badly at least.' _Tsubaki thought with relief, the last few seconds of her life nearly gave her a heart attack.

But while everyone was lost in their own thoughts, they didn't notice Ichigo slowly make his way over to where BlackStar was. Of course everyone froze at what happened next, Ichigo was standing less than a foot away from the blue haired ninja with his sword in hand. Everyone was on pins and needles for the next few seconds, fearful for BlackStar's life…

That is until Ichigo bonked BlackStar on the head with the blunt side of his sword, knocking the hyper knucklehead out.

Soon enough Ichigo dragged the unconscious form of BlackStar back to his weapon partner and dropped him to the ground with a thud. She looked him with a thankful smile before turning her attention back to her meister, who had yet to wake up from the bash to his head. Seeing how her meister was not going to wake up anytime soon, Tsubaki looked back to her previous opponent as he walked back towards the crowd of students.

Everyone present there could tell two things had happened that day. The first was that as long as this guy was attending this school, nothing would ever be the same. And the other thing was that BlackStar would be really angry when he woke up…

* * *

><p>There we go, Chapter 4 is finished!<p>

(1)-Since 99% of the time Ichigo hates Kon and seeing how Zangetsu is a part of Ichigo's soul (and the Hollow is like the dark half) I'd like to think Zangetsu has a deep hatred for Kon as well...and of course the Hollow likes to make fun of that as well.

(2)- She is talking about that living magical brush that can be seen...pretty much every time Blair takes a bath. Apparently it's her familiar or something and will do whatever she says.

(3)- If you have not seen Hollow Ichigo fight Muramasa (the Sword Spirit from a filler Ark in the Anime) then you may not understand what Ichigo is doing here. There are moments in their battle when the Hollow uses Zangetsu like a whip like weapon, sending it flying at him and then if he misses, he pulls on the cloth and it comes back to him, like a whip. I could also compare it to Hisagi's fighting style with his shikai but I'd saw the hollow fight Muramasa first so I'm going with that.

As you guys can see, in the beginning of both the manga and anime I hated BlackStar's character. Now that he has mellowed out alot since then I can see him as an enjoyable character. But back then I really didn't like his show off attitude at all. So I had Ichigo beat the unholy hell out of him. Seeing how Ichigo has had trouble in the past with God surpassing characters I can see him getting really annoyed with BlackStar, especially seeing how they just meet.

So far it looks like Yourichi is going to be the first to visit Ichigo, the visits for other BLeach charaters won't start for atleast another chapter or two so theres still a chance for that to change though. Oh well, we shall see.

Next Time: The Series begins! See what happens when Ichigo learns of a mission that concerns his new kitty friend! See you then.


	5. Of Worms and Souls

-Sorry about the delay everyone, alot of things have been happening in the week. School started, homework, didn't have internet. Once again I'm sorry.-

"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic" _-Hollow

**"Fight!" **-Zanpakuto/Yelling

* * *

><p>It's been about a week since Ichigo's first eventful day at the DWMA and surprisingly he had become sort of adjusted to the craziness many people considered normal around here. When it came to the wake up times that came with school was a pain in the ass, but he got used to it.<p>

Maka had become a somewhat dear friend of Ichigo during his short time at the school, not to mention she remind him somewhat of both Rukia and Orihime. She was a kind person who treated most people with the upmost kindness…until you annoyed her. Then she would unleash her fury upon you, most of the time with a really thick book. Ichigo learned that the hard way when he commented on her reading habit alongside Soul, his headache from her Maka Chop didn't go away for about three days.

Soul on the other hand was a rather interesting character. Being the silent type, Soul often displayed a cool personality around everyone expect those close to him. But despite that, Soul and Ichigo were able to get along pretty well.

BlackStar…well other than still being very annoying and his constant requests/demands for a rematch with Ichigo, he was slightly less of pest to Ichigo…most of the time.

Then it came to Tsubaki. Now she had unknowingly gained some respect from the orange haired shinigami by putting up with all of her blue haired meister's antics. If Ichigo was in her position he would have pulled his hair out of his head in pure anger long ago. He had to give her credit, she was able to put up with some unbelievable bullshit from the loud ninja, something most couldn't do, and she was still able to think clearly. He had to give her credit for that.

Sid hasn't really changed much after Ichigo first meet him. He was still the stern teacher who treated the majority of his students with respect and decency (not counting a certain blue haired one).

Overall the school was pretty interesting and Ichigo had grown somewhat accustom to it in the short time he had been attending at it. Grade wise he was doing quite well like he had done so at his previous school, not to mention the fact that with the absence of hollow attacks Ichigo didn't have to stay up half the night to prepare for a test anymore.

But that was also a major cause of annoyance for the young shinigami. Without stress release his hollow patrols had granted him, Ichigo had become rather restless in his spare time. Beating up on BlackStar during spars (Ichigo really only expected them when he was in a really bad mood) could only do so much. Add the fact that he still wasn't allowed to take on a mission because of his brief time attending the academy equals one of the most painful headaches and restlessness Ichigo had ever experienced in his life.

And if you thought this was a pain, think of what his hollow was feeling at this exact same time. He was so bored that he couldn't even enjoy sparing with Zangetsu anymore. The Zanpakuto wasn't even trying and the hollow had just plain grown bored with the same sparing matches with Zangetsu's same boring fighting style. Being so bored, the hollow actually made a remarkable discovery while exploring the endless reaches of Ichigo's inner world. It actually had stuff inside it!

Before hand anyone would have thought the entire city was just an empty representation of the boy's soul, but it turns out it was much more than that. While he was walking around the empty streets of the sideways world the hollow noticed a liquor store. Turns out that the endless city actually contains everything a real city would actually have in it. Unfortunately for Ichigo that also meant that the liquor in the store his hollow found was very real.

The hollow had a hangover that last for about three days. Ichigo actually asked Zangetsu to go around the city and lock up every place that had any type of liquor. The amount of keys the Zanpakuto collected in that short of time is unknown to even the sword spirit himself, there was just far too many keys.

Overall this development gave Ichigo some breathing room when it came to his hollow and even Zangetsu. His hollow found some things (other than liquor) that would distract him from the boredom of his king's life. Things from gun shops, car departments, video outlet stores (they contains every movie and television show Ichigo had ever seen), and very many more places really caught the hollow's attention.

Even Zangetsu discovered a fairly green park a good distance from his legendary flag pole perch. He figured that after he asked his wielder about having some trees in the world, Ichigo had created this park unknowingly and never mentioned it. This is where the sword spirit normally spends his time nowadays; it's quite a peaceful place and the hollow never really showed his face around there anymore (you can blame that on an incident involving a flamethrower, but that's a story for another day).

Overall this was the closest thing Ichigo could consider as a normal week in his life. There were no hollow attacks, not wandering sprits, and no insanely crazy antics (no, BlackStar does not count). But unfortunately just as the young shinigami was getting used to this odd taste of normality, he had no idea that all of that was going to turn into a giant pile of insanity.

**Present Time; 2:25pm, the DWMA:**

The boredom radiating off everyone in the Crescent Moon classroom was nearly unbearable. There was nearly thirty minutes left until the final bell and everyone just wanted it all to be over with. Hell, everyone had their own way of coping with the boredom.

Maka was reading a book while Soul was sleeping in his seat next to her in his own seat. BlackStar was just scribbling some nonsense onto some scraps of paper, most likely practicing his signature. Tsubaki was one of the few remaining students who were actually trying to pay attention to Sid's lesson. Speaking of their teacher, even Sid himself was bored out of his wits. He was so bored that he was even tempted to just let everyone have the rest of the day off and do what they wanted. But unfortunately for everyone else, that's not the kind of man he is.

And finally when it came to Ichigo, our resident vizard was just staring off into space. Currently his thoughts were switching between going into his inner world and seeing what his two personal spirits were doing or taking Soul's approach and catch some sleep.

But before he could decide on ether, the sound of the bell echoed throughout the classroom. Apparently time goes by faster when you're thinking about going to sleep than by listening to a boring ass lecture. But that's beside the point, once that final bell was heard everyone got ready to leave.

With a sight yawn, Ichigo gathered up his books and placed Zangetsu on his back before making his way to the door. But on the way there, he couldn't help but notice everyone else getting ready to head home. Maka had already gathered up all of her supplies and was currently trying to wake up her sleeping weapon partner. You'd think Soul would be smart enough to wake before his meister resorted to…

"Maka…**Chop!**"

Never mind. After that excellent display of head to book combat, Ichigo turned his attention toward possibly the loudest thing in a ten mile radios. Turns out that BlackStar had burst out of his seat the moment the bell rang and made his escape through a nearby window. Luckily Sid had foreseen this and opened all the windows ahead of time. Unfortunately this caused Tsubaki to rush out of the classroom in a attempt to catch up with her meister. For that Ichigo couldn't help but feel sorry for her, trying to catch up with that nutcase was like trying to give Kenpachi clear directions. It never works out like you want it to.

Putting those thoughts aside for now, Ichigo nearly made it out the door before a piece of chalk nailed him in the back of the head. Look behind him, he saw Sid walk over to him and hand him a note. But before he could question the teacher he vanished. Curse those assassin skills of his! They were really starting to piss him off.

Putting his plans for payback off to the side, Ichigo looked at the note that was just handed to him.

_Ichigo, Shinigami-sama wishes to speak to you in the death room. He apparently has something important he needs to discuss with you. Please head down to his office right after the final bell._

_Oh and P.S, if you see BlackStar please grab the little nutcase and bring him to me. I need someone to clean off his stupid signature off all the desks and the janitor refuses to do anything that has to do with him._

_-Sid Barret_

Ichigo couldn't help but lightly chuckle at that last bit. Sid's reaction this morning when he discovered that every single desk in the classroom had BlackStar's crudely dawn signature on it was priceless. He had to thank that hyperactive goofball before he dragged his sorry ass back Sid for punishment. But first things first, he needed to see the Reaper himself.

After a long walk to the death room, Ichigo opened the doors and saw the office's normal residences standing there waiting for them.

"Ichigo! Hey there! How's it going?" Shinigami-sama waved at Ichigo, his normal cheerfulness clearly present. Spirit only gave the young shinigami a nod in his direction, but coming from the death scythe it was pretty normal.

"This better not be something stupid like washing your windows again!" Ichigo called out to the duo, his frustration nearly overriding his common sense.

Last time the shinigami called Ichigo to his office he claimed he had a way to distract the young boy from his overwhelming boredom. But after three seconds of explain what exactly he had in mind, Ichigo realized that it was just a bunch of chores that the old man just really didn't want to do. The carnage the young vizard caused could have nearly destroyed the entire south portion of the DWMA if he really wanted too. Hopefully this time the old shinigami had something more important for Ichigo to spend his time on.

"No! no, this time it's actually something important this time!" Spirit wisely interrupted the situation, he still had a few bruises from the last time they angered the boy.

"Really?" Ichigo replied dryly, he was in no mood for any annoying bull crap from either of them. If this was just more of their useless crap, than all Ichigo wanted to do was go home and get away from all this craziness (Blair was likely there, but he really didn't think she counted).

"Oh yes!" Shinigami-sama finally said, now pretty sure that Ichigo wasn't going to try to smash his face again.

"I have a very important mission for you, one that I'm certain that none of my other students could handle." Now this got Ichigo's (and his Hollow's) attention, looks something interesting was going on and he didn't even know it.

Shinigami's mirror then displayed several images of destroyed trucks and trailers. They looked like something huge had gone an smashed them like pancakes. Hell, some of them even looked like it had a bite taken out of it.

"There is something destroying nearly all of local traffic coming to and from death city."

The mirror then changed to series of ghastly images of the injuries these attacks have caused. There were people gravely hurt by these acts of destruction. Broken bones, fractured skulls, and there were even a few body bags in the background. It was all sickening. But despite all the carnage these images had shown, there was still a single bit of importance to all of this pain. In the final picture, there was a small detail was shown in the far corner of the image. There, in the desert, was the image of something slithering into the earth and escaping the scene.

"Whatever this creature is," Shinigami-sama's words brought the visard's attention back to reality. "It needs to be stopped, before more lives are lost. Understood?"

Ichigo didn't need another thought on the matter; he simply nodded and made his way towards the exit. But with his back turned to the duo, Ichigo didn't notice the piles of sweat pouring down the back of their heads. But once he vanished from their sight into the halls of the school, the two released a sigh of relief they seemed to be holding for the last few hours.

"Phew...you think he bought it?" Spirit asked, still slightly concerned at the recent events.

The shinigami merely looked at him cheerfully and patted him on the back, "I'm sure of it! This should keep him busy for a few days…hopefully."

Spirit's expression picked up a little bit before looking at his boss with concern, "Are you sure he can handle this? I mean he's powerful and all but can he handle that…thing?"

The boss just waved his weapon's worries off and turned back to his mirror, he was certain that Ichigo could easily handle that creature. Hell, he didn't even have to explain what that creature really was. Knowing Ichigo's aggressive and destructive nature, he'd tear that thing apart with no second thoughts in the slightest. In the end it would all end ok.

Right?

**Later at Ichigo's Apartment.**

"What! You're going somewhere and leaving me here?"

Yeah, you'd think the extremely powerful human who possessed both the powers of a god of death and a hollow, a person who had fought against gods and demons. One who had achieved a level of power beyond all of imagination would be far beyond the whining of a cute cat girl.

"But ichi, I want to go with you!"

Eh…turns out not so much.

The moment Ichigo had returned from the academy he quickly began gathering the supplies he would need while he would be in the desert outside the city. Things like water, food, clothing to protect him from the sun, everything a normal person would need in the hot heat of the desert. But while he was packing all of those items in a small duffle bag he unknowingly attracted the of the resident cat girl. With her curious attitude she quickly asked the orange haired boy why he was doing this. Ichigo then spent the next two minutes explaining to his roommate the situation and what he was going to do about it.

After fully grasping the situation, Blair instantly asked if she could come with him. But knowing Ichigo's protective personality, it wasn't surprising when he said no. But of course his denial of her request lead to the current situation, Blair bugging the unholy crap out of Ichigo until he either told her off (little to no chance in that happening) or reconsidering taking her with him (not happening, ever).

Rubbing his temples in annoyance, Ichigo turned to his eyes on the sad expression on Blair's face (although that pout was somewhat suspicious).

"Blair, it why do you want to come with me? I can think of multiple reasons why you shouldn't and wouldn't want to come with me." Ichigo sighed, he really wanted to get this over with and she really wasn't making it easy.

The neko girl just gave him a confused look, what reasons could he have for her to not come with him? Still being the cat that she is, Blair rested her arm of the couch and waited for him to continue.

Ichigo then sat on the couch beside her and gave her a sincere look, "What I'm going after is dangerous, from what I've heard from the old man is that whatever this thing is has killed a large number of people and hurt even more."

Noticing her still paying attention he continued, "Knowing that, I cannot willingly take you with me." Putting his hands on her shoulder, Ichigo looked into his friend's eyes, "I don't want you to get hurt ok? I just can't have that."

Blair's ears instantly drooped at this but understood what Ichigo was saying. If someone as powerful as her orange haired ichi was worried for her safety, then her magic wouldn't cut it this time. But before she could make one last attempt at reasoning with him, Ichigo decided to put one last nail in the coffin.

"Besides, do you really want to be in the hot dirt-filled desert for the next few days?"

Now that finally ended the conversation on Blair's end. She actually hated the heat, being part cat does that to a person. Being covered in fur makes her very susceptible to the heat. Hell that's one of the reasons why she liked to stay at Ichigo's apartment all the time. Seeing how Ichigo didn't have to pay bills, she could keep the air conditioning on full blast. But add the burning desert to the list of things Ichigo was going through to kill that thing? It was just a little too much.

Seeing the depressed expression on his friend's face, Ichigo gave her a small hug before grabbing his stuff and heading towards the door. But before he made his way out the door he stopped and turned toward her.

With a small wave, Ichigo departed from his apartment and started to make his way to the city's front entrance.

But as he left, he didn't notice a depressed look Blair laid her head back onto the couch. She really wanted to go with her orange haired friend, but in the end she would have probably just been a liability to him. Sighing to herself, Blair merely opened one of the windows and jumped out. Landing on all four of her feet (she transformed into her cat form in mid-fall), Blair decided to head back to her home until Ichigo got back.

It wouldn't be that bad anyway, she could spend this time doing things she really couldn't with Ichigo. Maybe go shopping, hit the clubs, do some dancing, there was countless things she could do while her shinigami was away. But one thing was decided; the moment she got home she was going to take a nice long bath. Nothing can go possibly go wrong with a simple bath.

Right?

**A few hours later, Blair's house.**

"It's Crow Time!"

That was the sound that Soul Eater Evens made when he smashed his way into their targets house. When he and his meister had accepted this mission, they expected to be hunting a evil, disgusting witch so he could finally become one of shinigami-sama's private weapons. So imagine what happened when all he saw was the sight of a completely naked woman taking a bath.

If you guessed "fall comically to the ground with a massive nose bleed" then you would be right.

But unknown to him and his meister (who unfortunately arrived to see the embarrassment that was her weapon), Blair was thinking very different thoughts during this completely random situation. Maybe these next few days would be fun, even without Ichigo.

**The Nevada Desert (outside Death City) Same time.**

There were a few ways Ichigo could describe the situation he was in. So many words, hell most of them he couldn't say in public (well his hollow would scream it into the heavens at this point). But in the simplest of terms, Ichigo could summarize all of this in two simple words.

"This sucks…"

He had been in this god forsaken desert for a few hours now and there had yet to be a single sign of whatever had been terrorizing the area. You'd think that something that could cause that much destruction would be easier to find, right?

On a much more interesting note, there were also no signs of all that destruction that thing had caused. No destroyed cars, jeeps, trucks, or anything, there was nothing. Had all of been cleaned up or something? How was that possible? Hell, did that thing just come back and eat everything that it missed sometime later? It just didn't make any sense.

Sighing to himself, Ichigo spotted a nearby rock and decided it was the closest thing he would find to a chair in this sandy mess of land. Sitting himself down, Ichigo grasped his Zanpakuto by its hilt and pulled it off his back and stabbing it into the ground. Letting his sword sink into the ground alittle bit, he then pulled out a small mirror about the size of a dvd case.

One of the first things Ichigo had learned while at the academy was Death's number. Apparently instead of a normal cell phone number or a home phone, Shinigami had his own way of communication. If a person were to write a series of numbers onto a mirror or window, they could instantly contact the death god via the mirror inside his death room.

"42-42-564…" Ichigo muttered to himself as he traced the numbers on the small mirror. It took a few minutes of listening to the sound of a phone ringing, but soon enough the clear image of the goofy god of death appeared, look as amused as ever.

"Hey Kurosaki-kun! How sot going? Find that weird thingy yet?" The shinigami asked, more excited than he should be.

"In order? shitty and no, I still haven't found whatever this thing is." Ichigo response was as expected, annoyed and furious with the desert heat. Then something struck Ichigo, how on earth was he going to find this thing? He was in a freaking desert! If this thing could hide in the ground than it would be nearly be impossible to locate.

"Hey old man!" Shinigami-sama looked at the young vizard with interest, "Do you have any idea how the hell I'm suppose to find this thing in the entire Nevada desert?"

Now that was a question, Truth be told, the shinigami never thought about that piece of information. What if that creature had moved onward past death city, what if it simple left the area? Oh the destruction it could cause. Holy Shit! What would happen if that thing got to Los Vegas? Oh this could end bad…

"Um…hold on, I'm going to ask Spirit about this." The shinigami then disappeared from the mirror's view and Ichigo was greeted with the background image of the death room. Sighing in annoyance, Ichigo just let his hand drop to his side and let his gaze fall on the desert around him. Thinking about it now, Ichigo really wondered why they called the Nevada desert a 'desert'. If anything it was just a stretch of lifeless dirt, no sand, no nothing. Thinking about it still, Ichigo wished it was more like Huceo Mundo's desert. Sure it had some hollows that actually lived in the sand, but other than that it was pretty nice.

But as Ichigo's thoughts turned away from his surrounding area, he didn't seem to notice something small start digging its way of the dirt. It had a very distinct serpent like quality about it. With two small horn-like appendages sticking out of the back of its head, the creature started to slither around the local area for something.

But it made a fatal mistake when it actually noticed the nearby foot belonging to the local vizard. When it tried to snag the young boy's leg in its maw, it unknowingly brought the boy's attention away from his inner thoughts and to the creature itself.

When the creature actually tried to drag Ichigo's leg back into the ground, it painfully met the tip of Zangetsu when it was stabbed through the lower part of its body. Of course, the moment the blade broke through its skin the creature began to flop about, trying to escape its entrapment.

But despite this, Ichigo lifted his sword off the ground and with it, the creature too. Surprisingly this action also lead to a very interesting discovery, turns out that the creature was much longer than it appeared, the end of its body still buried deep into the ground. But while Ichigo was wonder what on earth he had discovered, he didn't notice Shinigami-sama reappear in the mirror's glass surface.

"So I asked Spirit and he…OH You found it!" Those simple words caused an involuntary twitch inside Ichigo. This 'thing' was what he was looking for? This tiny little worm caused all that destruction? Really? This unleashed an uncontrollable rage inside the orange haired vizard that completely overwhelmed all other reasoning skills he possessed.

"This…thing...is what you want me to kill….WHAT?"

"ALL that destruction, ALL that pain, ALL of it was caused by this…this…WORM!" If Ichigo was paying attention to his surroundings, then maybe he would have noticed some of the other living creatures in the area were dropping dead from the intense killing intent he was releasing. He was that enraged at the idea of being sent out in this scorching desert to kill this pathetic little worm.

"Now Ichigo let me explain…" The shinigami attempted to calm the young boy down, but that was abandoned when he noticed something terrifying in the mirror's reflection.

"Are you telling me, that you sent me out in the damn dessert…" Unfortunately for Ichigo, because of his enraged rant he didn't notice the sound of dirt breaking or a practically large shadow start looming over his head.

"Um…Ichigo…"

"...to kill a tiny ass WORM? That's it? That's all? Seriously?" The rant just continued, all the while Ichigo was completely unaware of the danger behind him.

"…Um…that's not the worm…" The shinigami's words finally got through to the ranting boy, who unfortunately still didn't notice the massive threat looming behind him.

Ichigo had to do a doubt take at the ld shinigami before replying, "What do you mean this isn't the worm? If this isn't the worm then I don't know what…it …is…"

That was the moment Ichigo noticed it. The massive shadow, the pile of dirt pushing against his back, and finally the stench of rotting corpses in the air. His head turned slowly, eyes widening as the sight of the creature entered his view. In the shock of this revelation, Ichigo dropped the mirror in his hand in utter shock, just as the shinigami on the other end finished his sentence.

"…that's its tongue…"

The creature was massive, at least the size of Ichigo's entire apartment, just think of that a gigantic worm the size of a two story apartment. Its head consisted of a massive, black, armored beak which opened up into beak opens up like a grotesque flower; it consisted of a wide upper jaw, a thinner lower jaw, and a pair of hooked mandibles on either side. Speaking of its mouth, pouring out of that monstrous hole was hundreds of these tentacles that bared the exact likeness of the one impaled on Zangetsu's blade.

The creature roared at the shinigami and lunged at him, and with its massive size nearly crushed Ichigo with his massive size. Luckily for the orange haired shinigami, his speed allowed him to bypass the massive creature while unknowing ripping the creature's 'tongue' free from his Zanpakuto. Landing on the nearby earth, Ichigo had to dodge the creature's continued attacks as it once again rushed at him. For a few minutes this went on, Ichigo dodging out of the way of this monster's attacks and the moment he landing back on the ground, the creature would come at him again.

It wasn't until Ichigo landed on a nice big piece of stone that the creature finally stopped coming after him. Seeing this as a moment of rest, Ichigo collapsed onto his knees and took a deep breath. Maybe it would have been better if he had used his combat badge a little earlier…well too late now.

After donning his shinigami garbs and looking towards the location where shinigami-sama's mirror used to be, only one idea came to the boy's mind. The accursed waiting game had begun…and with a giant monstrous worm no less.

Oh this was not going to be fun at all.

**Death City, a few days later.**

Turns out, Blair was actually having some fun with these two goofballs. For about three days now this little blond meister and her white haired weapon partner. For about three days now, these two goofballs have been making attempts on her life while believing she was a witch. You'd think that a person in her situation should take these events a little more seriously, but for Blair she couldn't help but laugh at the whole thing.

She was sure that when it came to evil humans or such these two were expert hunters, but when it came to her…well they were amateurs. And Blair couldn't help but laugh out loud at that.

Sighing to herself, the magic induced kitten glanced out the window at the laughing moon. When was Ichigo going to come back? Despite how much fun these two could be, she really did miss the orange haired friend she had grown attached to.

Sighing to herself, Blair spotted the two academy students approaching her house. Well at least these two could entertain her for awhile.

**The Desert, same time:**

Hell, which is the only word Kurosaki Ichigo would describe the current situation he was in.

For three days, three unbearable days. That's how long Ichigo had been sitting on this bloody rock, sitting on his ass while waiting for a giant ass worm. Now, most would be wondering why Ichigo hasn't just demolished this oversized earthworm with a simple swing of his Zanpakuto. Well it's not the power that's lacking, Ichigo has plenty of that, no, what's missing is the target itself.

Turns out that despite its massive size the monstrous worm can move surprisingly fast, much too fast for any of Ichigo's attacks. Add the fact that that thing can dig it was through the deserts' earth like a dwarf digging a hole just makes Ichigo situation even worse for him.

So for the last three days, all Ichigo could do was sit on a lone rock in the middle of the god forsaken desert while a gigantic worm from hell was waiting for its next meal, yep, that's how Ichigo wanted to spend his week.

And that brings us to this moment of boredom. At this moment Ichigo was attempting to drive off the insanity trying to take a hold of his mind by tossing some stones into the distance. You'd think that really wouldn't be entertaining, but when you see a worm the size of a apartment building burst out of the ground every time you throw a rock really does make the time go by.

Well, that and having your Zanpakuto and inner hollow pick ideas back and further on how to get out of this situation didn't hurt the situation either.

"_Ok, how about we try firing some ceros into the ground? Eh, it could work"_

"No, we don't need to make a mess, besides how would we know if we hit it or not…" Ichigo didn't even bother replying in his head, there was no one around besides him and the worm.

"_Damn….where's that stupid stuffed animal when we actually need it? We could use him as bait…" _The hollow grumbled.

"At Urahara's shop probably, maybe he's being used as a mascot or something…" Ichigo couldn't help but chuckle at that, maybe Urahara was selling a bunch of merchandise with Kon's face on it. Now that would be hilarious.

"**Back on topic, we still need a way to defeat this creature and get back to the city." **Zangetsu was really tired of all of this crap, the boredom running throughout Ichigo's inner world was causing a massive drought and that was killing off his plants. And if Ichigo knew Zangetsu as well as he did, Zangetsu wanted this thing dead just as much as he did.

"Right…any ideas." Really though, Ichigo was just sick and tired of trying to think about how to kill this thing.

"_Well, its huge, ugly, smells worst than Yammy, and needs to die…I don't see anything else we need to know to kill it." _The hollow was actually happy he wasn't in control of Ichigo's body at the moment, that thing smelled worst than the nastiest hollow they had ever killed.

"…I know that…I mean do either of you have any ideas on **how** to kill this thing."

That let left the hollow thinking for a few moments, _"Right…let's see, Oh how about you let it eat you and then kill it from inside its gut!"_

Ichigo nearly gagged at that idea, "Oh hell no! I'm not getting anywhere that thing's stomach until its dead."

But at that moment an idea came to the young Vizard. He quickly dug into his nearby duffle bag and pulled out his wallet. Flipping it open, he quickly came t face a mirror attached to the inside of the leather wallet. But while he was writing Shinigami-sama's number into the wallets surface, his hollow made a very interesting comment.

"_Um king…why do you have a tiny mirror in your wallet…?" _

Ichigo scoffed at this hollow while the 'phone' was ringing, "Kon put it there one time he was using my body."

Soon enough the mirror's reflective surface was replaced with the goofy image of the senor shinigami and for some odd reason… the bleeding form of spirit in the background. Now normally Ichigo wouldn't think that hard about seeing spirit beaten senseless by his commanding officer, but seeing how it looked like this wasn't the first time the scythe had been on the receiving end of a shinigami chop today, Ichigo couldn't help but wonder what's been going on while he's been gone (the fact that his hollow had been laughing his ass off at the sight of Spirit didn't help either).

"Um…old man?" Shinigami-sama nearly jumped at the voice before turning his eyes on the new image appearing in the corner of his mirror (nobody really understood how a mirror could have a three-way call system, but it worked), "Am I interrupting something?"

"Ah Ichigo! How is your mission going?"

With all the commotion with Maka's mission the duo had nearly forgotten about their vizard friend out in the desert. No giant explosions, no earth quakes, no unbelievable spiritual pressure, it was hard to notice he was even out there.

"Oh its going fine, just fine…hey old man?" Ichigo let a few seconds pass by, "Do you mind if I ask a favor?"

**Five minutes later.**

"Ok, you ready on your end old man?" Ichigo as ready on his end, but he needed to be sure about the other end of his plan.

On the other end of the mirror, the personification of death himself was prepared. While the plan Ichigo had described to him was strange, he had seen much stranger ones before so he really didn't question it. So with the boom box's (one he had magically pulled out of his cloak somehow) volume set to maximum, he was only waiting for Ichigo's say so.

The plan was actually quite simple. Ichigo figure that sense this giant monster of a worm had no eyes to be seen, he figured it had to hunt by sound. With that in mind, the plan was simple; throw a device making a large amount of noise in the opposite direction and run like hell. Sure, Ichigo really hadn't thought of what to do after that, but he was sure he would think of something on the way.

"All ready on my end!" And with those final words from his ally, Ichigo took one last glance at the insane look on the moon's face and…

"**Now!"** And with that final shout, Ichigo ripped the tiny mirror from his wallet's fabric and tossed it as far as he could into the desert's wasteland.

And at that same moment on the other end of the mirror, Shinigami-sama clicked the 'on' button on the boom box and released an earful of music. It sounded like an odd mix of both heavy metal and gothic chorus, but what kind of music it was really didn't matter as long as it was ear-drum bursting loud. For thanks to the connection between the two mirrors, the music erupted into the previously silent desert.

The creature, which had been waiting for the simplest of sounds, instantly went after the music producing mirror in an insane frenzy. It had been awhile sense its last meal after all and it was starving.

Luckily this is what Ichigo was waiting for. The moment he saw that monstrous creature go after the mirror, he took off in the opposite direction in a burst of shunpo, only making ever slit contact to the ground when needed.

Unfortunately, that's all the creature needed. For the moment it devoured that tiny source of noise, it instantly felt the vibration of footsteps, ichigo's footsteps. That's all the invitation the monster needed, as it took off after its prey at insane speeds.

A few seconds into his escape, Ichigo noticed the ground rumbling under his feet every time his feet touched the earth. Looking over his shoulder, Ichigo saw a gigantic mound of dirt racing at break neck speeds towards him. Recognizing his hunter, Ichigo increased the speed of his shunpo even further, hoping to see the vague outline of the city's walls soon enough.

Luckily for him, a few flash steps and about a few miles later the city's gate came into view. Unfortunately for Ichigo however, during those few moments his pursuer had easily gained ground on the orange haired shinigami and was less than hundred feet behind him and gaining. With that in mind, Ichigo did the only thing he could do and kept his mind on his target.

Seconds later with the help us his enhanced speed, Ichigo arrived at the base of one of the city's walls. Turning his head back to the desert, Ichigo saw the creature approaching him at incredible speeds; it would only be about thirty seconds before it was upon him.

_20 seconds_

Ichigo unsheathed Zangetsu and readied himself as the creature entered a hundred feet ratios.

_10 seconds_

The creature's head finally surfaced from the ground, its monstrous horde of tongues reaching out for their prey.

_5 seconds_

There was less than a football field's length between the two of them now; the stench of the creature could be smelled by the residences living inside the city itself.

_1 second_

All Ichigo could see in all of his vision was the monster's gigantic maw. The countless numbers of those vile tongue-like creatures, the endless black void that severed as its throat and that horrible stench…god it was revolting. It was in that moment that the young shinigami nearly found himself consumed by it.

Luckily for the powerful vizard, the timing he had was precise. For at the last critical moment, Ichigo unleashed a powerful burst of shunpo at the last possible moment to dodge the massive creature's attack. Sure it was a close call; Ichigo even got the lower portion of one of his legs nicked by the worm's tongues. It didn't really hurt that much seeing how he slipped right through its grasp, but the fact that it actually touched him makes it a very close call.

Unfortunately for the worm, this close call had some devastating consequences of it. Sense the creature didn't even consider the chance that its meal could vanish into thin air, it just continued forward on it way and ended up face first into the city's stone wall. Ichigo, who was still in mid air, took this golden opportunity and prepared his assault.

Lifting his massive Zanpakuto over his head, Ichigo unleashed one of the most destructive Getusga Tencho he could muster.

The monstrous worm howled in agony as the attack tore into its back. The destructive technique carved a valley of carnage in the creature's flesh, it was so big that the amount of orangey-red blood that was pouring out of it was more than enough to fill a couple dozen swimming pools. But despite all of that, the damn worm was still alive!

Now that really ticked off Ichigo. Was this thing really that hard to kill? It was like trying to beat a released Yammy to death with a bloody club! It just won't die!

With those enraging thoughts, Ichigo dispersed the layer of air he was standing on and set his sights on the beast below.

After flying through the air for a few seconds, Ichigo landed roughly on the thrashing beasts back with Zangetsu tip digging into the creature's exposed flesh. Due to the excruciating pain it was already in, the monster didn't take notice of the orange haired shinigami's arrival until it was far too late.

Landing a few yards above where his Getsuga Tencho had struck, Ichigo immedently started to channel more of his spiritual energy into his weapon. Although the concentration it required was a little difficult, the monster's endless thrashing was similar to a bull riding contest.

Pushing his blade forward, Ichigo unleashed a massive wave of spiritual energy, one that carved a pathway of pure destruction down the creature's back. Adding to the other wound that had already been inflected previously, the creature now had a very crude and painful looking cross that covered the most of its body.

It was unknown what caused the creature's death at this time. Maybe it was the overwhelming pain from the wounds, the blood loss, or hell, maybe it was from the creature's brain being smashed into paste when it collided with the city's wall.

Whatever the cause was, after Ichigo had sent that attack down the creature's back, its thrashing becoming nothing more than a series of simple twitches and finally…nothing.

Ichigo just signed to himself and dropped to his knees, utterly thankful that the creature was finally dead. But before he could take a few seconds to catch his breath (hey, covering countless miles in less than a few minutes and killing a giant worm is tiring) something extraordinary happened, it exploded.

No, this was not some over dramatic slow-mo type of explosion like you see in the movies, it just exploded. Nothing fancy, it just blew up. It was like a overstuffed balloon, and as such it covered everything nearby in its remains, the desert ground, the city's wall, and of course, Ichigo. It was a disgusting experience, being covered in the fluid of a creature that smelled worse than every dump in the world was basically unspeakable. And you wanna know the worst part of all of it? Some of it got into his mouth.

"What…the…fuck…" Those we the only words Ichigo could say, the disgusting taste occupying his mouth.

"_I've…..got nothing to say about this…."_ His hollow was even speechless, now that was a surprise.

"**Sick…" **For the next few days, Zangetsu would wear a gasmask.

After that no more words were shared between them. Ichigo returned his sword to his back, stood up, and vanished in a burst of shunpo over the city's walls. There was only one thought in the young shinigami's mind as he raced through the city's streets.

'_God lord I need a shower…'_

**Meanwhile at the Death Room.**

Shinigami-sama actually chuckled at the scene he was looking at. Ichigo, his powerful student at the academy had just defeat a giant monstrous worm-like creature…and it just exploded on him. If it wasn't for the fact that Ichigo could easily beat him senseless if he found out, the shinigami would be laughing his ass off. He really had to thank Stein for accidentally releasing that sick experiment of his.

Sure, about five minutes ago he was sure that his punishment for that crazy mad scientist was going to be severe, but now after such entertainment? He hadn't the hart to punish him for it. Hell, he may just send Sid over to his house to thank him for all of this. He might even send him a gift basket as well.

But while he was thinking about thanking that madman, he failed to notice Maka and Soul's battle against the witch make its way into the city streets.

**Sometime later, the streets of Death City.**

Where is she? For all the times for that goofy little cat to disappear why did it have to be now?

Those were the words that were ringing throughout Ichigo's head. He had arrived back inside the city's safe haven about a half an hour ago, and the first thing he did was take a nice, long shower. And after a nice change of clothes, a sever cleaning of his Zanpakuto, and some dinner Ichigo then took to the city in search of his kitty friend. Now it's not that he was worried about her (too much), it's just that whenever Ichigo returned to his apartment for whatever reason Blair would just magically appear out of nowhere and nearly hug him to death.

So with her absence, Ichigo felt like looking for her. Besides, he was sure she missed him these last few days and he needed to apologize to her anyway.

So that's how we got to this situation. Ichigo was currently jumping from rooftop to rooftop in search of his magical friend. He had already checked her usual spots like that fish store and a handful of shops and yet he had still seen no sign of her. You'd think it would be easy to find a magical cat in a city filled with weapons and meisters…guess not when it comes to Blair.

'_Damn it, for all the times for her to disappear…'_

Annoyed with his lack of progress in finding her, Ichigo was about to make his way to the academy and ask the old man about her. But as he turned toward the towering academy, he was nearly knocked on his ass by a giant explosion in the distance. Normally Ichigo would rush over to see what was going on, but there was something particular about this one.

The explosion was in the shape of a Jack-o-lantern. And there was only one person Ichigo knew who could create an explosion like that.

'_Blair!'_

Quickly activating his combat badge, Ichigo took off towards the site of the explosion at breakneck speeds. He was certain that if Blair was anywhere in this city, then she was going to be there.

**Explosion/Battle site:**

Landing on a nearby rooftop, Ichigo took notice of the destruction littering the street. There were countless scorch marks and even a few craters along the street. Following the path of destruction, soon enough Ichigo saw three figures in the distance.

'_Soul? Maka? What are those two doing here?...' _

But before Ichigo could question his classmates reasons for being there Ichigo saw something very ominous transpire. Soul, who was standing next to Blair for whatever reason, transformed his right arm into a giant blade and wrap it around Blair's waist.

_'What! Why are they...' _But Ichigo's thoughts were quitly interrupted by a simple moment from nearly a week ago. A simple sentence uttered in desperation, a confestion.

**Flashback, Ichigo's apartment.**

_"I can do magic, and because of that people think I'm a witch! Please don't hate me!"_

**Flashback End.**

_'No, no, no...they can't think that can they?'_

But then it happened, in one sudden moment it happened. In less than a simple moment, Soul reached out to his miester and began to transform. It was almost instantaneous for most people, but not for Ichigo. For Ichigo, it was like iternity. For those insanely long seconds, Ichigo saw a sight more horrifying then all the hollows he had ever seen in his life.

For three agonizing seconds, Maka ripped through Blair's torso with her weapon, splitting the neko in half in a devastating display.

His mind just collapsed, there was no other way to explain it. That sight, that image, everything about those few seconds had made his world shatter. He thought he could protect her, his first friend in this crazy city. There were no hollows, no shinigami, no Espada, nothing overwhelming that he would have to protect her from. But he didn't expect having to protect her from his classmates, really? Who would think about that? But maybe he should have then this wouldn't have happened. She'd be safe, and he...he wouldn't have failed...again.

He failed her. After so much, after promising to her that he would protect her, he failed. And that's all the reason he needed.

"**You Bastards!**"

Maka and Soul never saw it coming. They had finally collected their final soul needed, the witch's soul. But moments before Soul could devour it and become a death scythe, a loud, booming, and enraged roar exploded from behind them. And what they saw nearly scared them shitless. Flying at them a unbelievable speed was Ichigo. But it wasn't the Ichigo they knew. No, those eyes, the hatred, the burning fury within them is not the same kind soul they had met in class a week ago.

No, these were the eyes of someoone who wanted you dead.

But before they could understand what was happening, Ichigo was right in their faces. With a savage swing from Zangetsu, Ichigo nearly took both of their heads with the gigantic blade. In a shaky response, Soul transformed back into his weapon form and flew to Maka, who took a defensive stance. Not that it helped anyway. Ichigo was in a blood socked rage, and if his attacks didn't kill them then, his hollow would.

**Meanwhile: The Death Room.**

This was bad. No wait, this wasn't bad, it was ungodly horrible.

Those were the thoughts that were running throughout Shinigami-sama and Spirit's minds. This not suppose to happen, Ichigo was not suppose to go into a rage, he was not suppose to see Maka's fight, and finally, he wasn't suppose to try to murder his friends. Now that's where their minds kind of split on the issue. The shinigami had a idea, although a slight one, but an idea none the less of why Ichigo was going on his blood rage. Now he was just going to wait until it was going to show itself, but unfortunately that's not where Spirits mind was going.

"Don't worry Maka! Papa will save you!"

Spirit's mind was in full on "protect my daughter mode" and was completely ready to kill to save his daughter. Luckily for him, he had a great boss. For Shinigami-sama was currently holding the enraged weapon back by the scruff of his shirt, saving his ass from getting the unholy shit beat out him by the furious visard. Now the shinigami was completely aware of his death scythes combat abilities, he wouldn't be his personal weapon otherwise. But this was not the situation where you just run into the fight and save the day, no, that type of mind would get him killed.

"Shinigami-sama! Let me go!" he was currently trying to pry the large hand of the death god from his coat, "Damn it! I have to save Maka!"

"Nope."

"God damn it! Let go of me!" Hell at this point he was biting the hand stopping him, "Why '_Chomp_' won't you '_Chomp_' let me save '**_Chomp_**' Maka?"

That was enough. With those words, Shinigami-sama then pulled his death scythe to his side, gripped his neck, and lifted him into the air. Now at each other's level, the shinigami stared into the worried father's eyes and explained himself.

"Reason, there is always a reason." Those words didn't calm down the weapon at all. All they did was confuse him.

"Ichigo is not the type of person who would just go off on someone and try to kill them, there has to be a reason." While that still din't calm the weapon down, he did start to see it from the old death god's point of veiw.

"Give it a chance, I have an idea why this is happening and all of this will blow over if I'm right."

Luckily for him, those final words seemingly reached the inner works of the red haired death scythe. Finally giving up his struggle, Spirit just silently returned his attention back to the viewing after seeing the down expression on his weapon's face; the shinigami could help but think.

_'God please let me be right...'_

**Back to the streets.**

Why is this happening?

Those were the words that were going through Maka's head as she felt her back smash into another brick wall. Most would call a battle between these two warriors a one-sided domination. But not Maka, she called this a slaughter. But why? Why was he doing this? To Maka, Ichigo had been this quite, bold, and somehow intelligent kid who just arrived at this school a week ago. But this? No. This was a monster.

But Maka's thoughts were cut short when a muscular hand grabbed her head and smashed it against a local brick wall. With a small tickle of blood running down her forehead, Maka dropped to her knees, no longer having the strength to stand. Her eyes were heavy, the beating was just too much for her. But as the enraged shinigami drew ever closer, Soul instantly transformed back and held his meister close.

Ichigo was less than a yard away from them, his Zanpakuto at his side. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he couldn't help it. The pain of failure was something he couldn't bare again; add his hollow's influence and Ichigo couldn't control himself.

His yellow clad eyes staring painfully at the duo, Ichigo lifted his Zanpakuto into the air and gathered as much of his rage as he could. With rage burning through him, he brought his weapon down and...

"Ichi?...what are you doing?"

...froze, Ichigo couldn't move the moment that sound entered his ears.

Those words, that tone, that nickname. How? He saw them kill her, they cut her in half. But is it possible?

Turning his head slowly, Ichigo noticed something in the distance. Standing on top of a nearby staircase was a cat, a small black cat wearing a witch's hat. That sight just killed him, he had just nearby beat two of his classmates to death with his bare fists and now she was standing how she was there?

Those questions just continued to run throughout his head, all the stress, the regret, and the relief was just overwhelming. In the heat of the moment, Ichigo's grip on his weapon vanished and dropped his sword to the ground; he just couldn't hold it anymore. And while all of this was going on, Ichigo didn't notice his furry friend walk up to his side.

Blair was deeply confused.

Now Blair hadn't expected these two rookies to defeat her, she had planned on having a little more fun with the two before Ichigo got back. But when they were able to pull the wool over her eyes and defeated her? Now that was a surprise, but not completely unexpected. So she was thinking, how about walking out in front of them right after the boy ate one of her souls? That would be a laugh right? But then, Ichigo showed up...at the worst time possible.

How long had he been there? Why was he there? Ok maybe he was searching for her, four days being gone and she's not there to greet him? It's not a surprise that he would go out looking for her. But why was he hurting them? What reason does he have for beating them up like this? What had they done to him? Maybe...oh god...did he see them...kill her?

_Oh God!_ That's it, that's why he was doing this...for her.

It was at this very moment Ichigo returned to his nearly shattered senses. And at the moment he saw the small kitten standing less than a foot away, he acted on impulse. He instantly scooped the small feline up into his arms and held her close, the overwhelming relief overriding his common sense. Now on the other end of this interaction Blair's blush was luckily hidden by her black fur or otherwise she'd be as red as a sapphire.

And of course, sitting against a nearby wall was the duo from the academy and they were utterly confused.

"Soul..." Maka said, her head wasn't hurting as much now but that still didn't clear up the fog of randomness her day had turned out to be.

Soul didn't bother to look away from the scene in front of him, "Ya..."

"What on earth just happened?..."

"Believe I can explain that!" A certain goofy voice startled the two tired academy students. Turning their heads towards the building they were resting on and noticed a nearby window. They were pleasantly surprised to see a rather cheerful Shinigami-sama and spirit (who was currently crying big goofy anime tears).

So, about five minutes later and a rather lengthy explanation later, Soul, Maka, and Ichigo (who had Blair sitting on his shoulder) were about ready to head home. The old headmaster had explained to the two students about Blair's status, her relationship with Ichigo, and a modified version of why Ichigo behaved like the way he did (he wisely left out the part about the war with Aizen and being a shinigami, no need to drop a bomb like that right now). While of course the two of them understood Ichigo's reaction (although Soul was still a little sore about it, but Maka was certain he'd be over it in no time).

"So...no hard feelings?" Ichigo asked, his hand extended in a friendly manor. He hadn't expected them to understand so easily, if was in their position he wouldn't be so forgiving.

"Ya it's ok, we understand." Maka said with a nod. Soon after Shinigami-sama had finished explaining the situation Ichigo had left for a few moments and returned with a few bandages to the meister and weapon. Considering what he had done previously, it's the least he could do for them.

And with a simple wave and a subtle wink from Blair, Ichigo and the kitty vanished in a burst of Shunpo, leaving the scene of the battle in a much simpler and peaceful manor then either of them arrived.

Maka sighed to herself. It had been one hell of a night and at this moment, all she wanted to do was go home, take a nice long shower, and get a nice night long sleep. But before she turned her attention back to her headmaster and papa, she noticed something missing. Not too much had happened to the street during the time between their battle with Blair and Ichigo, so there was something that had yet to be accounted for.

She turned toward her weapon partner, who was already making his way back to their apartment, "Hey Soul, what happened to that Soul we got from Blair after we beat her?"

Soul stopped his walking and turned back to his meister. Thinking for a few seconds, the truth dawned in him, "Oh yea, I ate it while Shinigami-sama was explaining stuff," he then started to pick his teeth, "Eh...it kind of tasted a little furry for some reason."

Unfortunately for the both of them, Shinigami and Spirit were still looking at them through the nearby window.

"What..." Maka couldn't help but whisper, this was not happening.

"What's the big deal? I ate it after we knew she was a cat, it's not like I..."

"Unfortunately Soul, you and Maka are still on your mission, and since you ate a cat soul instead of a witch's soul, you both fail." The terrifying interruption by the shinigami sent shivers down Maka's spine. This **cannot **be happening!

"And so..." The shinigami then pointed his goofy cartoonish hands at the duo, "...all of you Ninety-Nine kishin eggs will be confiscated."

Nether of the two said anything, the truth had just begun to sink in. There was only silence, well for about a few more seconds anyway…until.

"**WHAT?**"

The Moon, if it was even possible, started to laugh even harder...much to Maka's and Souls misfortune. What did they do to deserve this? Crazy magic cats, and kid with a portecting obsession? Why does this crap always have to happen to them...and unfortunately for them, their craziness had just begun.

* * *

><p>Now to clear some things up.<p>

This story is not and will not be a massive AU story where events in canon do not happen. I want a story that keeps the main storyline with the addition of a certain Orange haired shinigami. Now to do this, the Blair and Maka/Soul fight had to happen. There had to be a way for Soul and Maka to lose their 99 Kishin eggs and for Blair's status to be revealed to to main faction. So to do that I needed to take Ichigo out of the equation for a few days, so in came the monster worm.

I'm sure that atleast some of my readers would recongize what I based the creature on, but if you're not one of them, I'll tell you. The main theme and concept of this creature is based off the Graboid from the Tremors series, its a massive prehistoric underground worm that terroized a small country town by eating anyone it came across. Now I did make it a hell of alot bigger and added a few hundred more of its tongue creatures to it.

To tell you all about the worm's origins, we have to go into the world of Soul Eater's favorite mad scientist. Conecting Shinigami-sama's comment about 'thanking' Stein, its fairly obvious that he had something to do with it.

To tell you the truth, I've always wondered what exactly Stein is doing inside that creepy house of his all the time. We always see him in there doing something, but we never see what it actually is. So I want to imagen the worm monster as one of Stein's experiments gone alittle out of hand. So who did he ask to clean up his mess? And who did the guy he asked get to clean up the madman's mess? Well its pretty obvious now. So Shingami-sama made up all of those photos and sent Ichigo to kill the worm, its that simple.

Now I have a challenge for you all, during this chapter I made a few refences to other subjects and series. Can you find them all? (And no, since I already explained the worm's origin, it does not count). The person who does find them all will get a shoutout next chapter and may even have their say in something important in the story's future (No changes to the pairings though, I already have those set in stone).

**Anyway, Next Time:** A Samurai vs Ninja, and a Son?...oh hi ther-WHAT THE HELL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?


	6. Cats and Samurai Aw crap

My god, I'm so sorry everyone. So very sorry, I can't believe its taken me this long to finally update this. I'd like to give a good excuse for why this is so late but...I can't. I just had a hard time writing this and time just got away from me. Still I hope this chapter may make up for some of the long wait you've all had to endure.

Also, I need a beta, but I'll get more into that later. Now on with the story!

"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic" _-Hollow

**"Fight!" **-Zanpakuto/Yelling

* * *

><p>Have you ever had one of those days when you'd rather just lay down on the ground and go to sleep? When you're walking toward your school and you'd rather just fall asleep on the sidewalk for an hour or two before going to that asylum of learning? If you have, then you've basically felt the same way Ichigo is now currently acting like.<p>

Now there is a reason for this, for last night was the first peaceful night of sleep Ichigo has had in the last good part of the week. Hey, you stay up for about four days straight because of a massive worm-like monster, return home to find one of your only friends get sliced in half, nearly have a mental breakdown, and spending the next two hours apologizing for not being able to protect said person really tires you out.

But for whatever reason it was, Ichigo was nearly considering just skipping school and going back to bed. But unfortunately for him, he had a headmaster who could easily check on him and basically nag him into coming in. So for Ichigo it was a lose-lose situation.

So here that's who we came to the situation at hand, a tired as hell Ichigo slowly making his way toward the academy. But unknown to the orange haired shinigami, he wasn't alone on this currently deserted street.

On the clear other side of the road, two curious yellow eyes were watching him. Oh today was going to be interesting.

**A few hours later, Ichigo's Apartment.**

Right now, there only one thing Ichigo wanted to do and that is sleep. The insanity of the school day had done nothing to bring Ichigo back to normal. At this very moment, all he wanted to do was to sleep and no hollow, no evil human, no ninja would stop him from getting as much sleep as he wanted.

"Hi Ichi!"

Ok…maybe there was something.

The moment Ichigo unlocked his door and entered his apartment he noticed the small black kitty sitting on the counter with a frying pan next to her. On the table there was also a plate with a load of nasty, burnt fish piled up on it. Then out of the blue, another freshly burnt fish flew through the air and landed on the plate, adding to steady amount of burnt aquatic life. Looking back to his roommate, Ichigo grimaced when he was the small kitty wave her par in the air, making another fish poof into existence and land in the pan.

"Are you hungry? I made fish!" Blair asked, offering some of the fish to the tired orange haired teen.

"No thanks…" Ichigo replied, yawning to himself and briefly scratching the small kitten behind her ears.

"…I'm just going to have a little rest for a few hours." Then Ichigo calmly patted his little friend on her furry head and made his way to his room, only getting a small reply from the small kitten.

"Ok Ichi, I'll save you some for later!" Blair cheerfully replied before magically poofing another fish into existence and plopping it onto the frying pan in front of her. The orange haired shinigami never understood why or how she even liked that stuff…and most likely never wanted too.

Effortlessly pushing his door open, Ichigo at any other time would have just seen a normal comfy bed, but right now? It seemed like a the best thing in the world right now…hey a few hours ago he was willing to fall on his face and sleep on a slab on concert.

After discarding his backpack, placing Zangetsu against its normal resting spot, and tossing his coat onto his desk, Ichigo just flopped onto his comfy mattress as if it was a gift from god. It would take only a few mere moments but soon enough Ichigo was out cold and nothing short of a cero to his face would wake the sleeping warrior.

It was only a few hours later did Ichigo awake from his slumber. It may not have been that long of a nap considering how tired he was but it was a start. Shifting in his bed, Ichigo couldn't help but notice a strange pressure on his stomach. Slowly pulling his arm out from under the covers, the young teen felt around on the bed until his hand came in contact with a small patch of fur. Cracking one of his eyes open, Ichigo barley noticed a blurry form of black cat snuggled up into his chest. Thinking it was Blair was the obvious choice that entered Ichigo's mind, so thinking that Ichigo just closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

Or at least he tired…

"Oh Ichigo….I'm so disappointed…" Those were the words that came out of the furry creature's mouth, but they were not in the same cheerful goofy voice Blair had always had.

"…just a little more than a week has past and already you've gone and replaced me…" No, this voice was a strong, prideful one that was not without a sense of wit. It was a voice that Ichigo had become very familiar with…

"…I'm hurt; if you missed me so bad then I'm sure I could have visited sooner…" The cat continued, slowly but surely walking closer to Ichigo's face. While all the while Ichigo was stunned at the creature before him. Why was _she_ here? Of all the times for her to visit why did have to be now?

"…You must have been so bored staying in this little apartment; you could use some company…"

There were only a few inches between the two of them now and things were not getting any better on Ichigo's end. Then out of complete nowhere the black cat that was currently sitting on Ichigo's upper body suddenly burst into a blast of white smoke. Once that smoke had clear gone was the black cat and now in its place was a gorgeous woman of fantastic appearance. She had a very slender yet gorgeous figure that some fit well with her dark skin. Her long hair that was kept in a stylish pony tail was also a very interesting shade of purple. And finally her yellow piercing eyes just radiated the playful attitude she was displaying with that smirk on her face.

Oh there was also the small detail that was left out; while she was laying playfully on Ichigo's chest…she was completely naked. Apparently this happened every time Yoruichi turned into a cat and it annoyed/embarrassed the young visard to no end.

"Yoruichi…" Ichigo said as calmly as he could in this situation, which for his past experience in these types of situations was actually a surprise. Every other time she had done this Ichigo had freaked out and nearly fainted from a blush, to see him that calm was unexpected.

"Hm?..." Yoruichi replied, clearing enjoying the teasing. It had been far too long since she had done this, it was nice.

"Could you please put some clothes on?" Ichigo asked as calmly as possible, and seeing how all the other times Yoruichi had appeared in front of him naked had turned out …it was a slight improvement.

That nearly caused the former stealth force commander to burst out laughing. Sure it may not have been as dramatic reaction she used to get out of the boy but it was still entertaining to see him still be as innocent (at least in that regard) as he was all those months ago.

"You never change."

And with that Yoruichi gave her former student a hug, no teasing, no goofing around, it was an honest to goodness hug. And surprisingly despite the fact that she was still naked, Ichigo returned the gesture, honestly happy to see his goofy cat transforming teacher again. Hey, it may have been a week since the last time the two had seen each other but considering Ichigo basically had to abandon his entire life…it seemed like a lot longer.

It took a few moments to pass by but soon enough the two separated, with Yoruichi smirking as she pulled herself off the bed and for Ichigo to sit himself up (with a fairly large blush on his face).

"So what brings you here…" Ichigo trailed off, his blushed gaze wandering away from the still naked women (who was still smirking at him, fully aware at why he wasn't looking at her).

Yoruichi chuckled to herself before looking at her friend in pout made of mock disappointment and sadness, "Oh Ichigo, do you really think I need a reason to visit my favorite strawberry?"

"Yes." Ichigo deadpanned.

"Aw, that wounds me, do you really think so lowly of me?" Yoruichi pouted, but seeing the serious look on her former student's face she started to explain.

"It's just been so boring back home…I wanted some excitement and thought 'why not visit the orange haired goofball'?" Yoruichi explained with a smile, getting a goofy confused look from Ichigo who surprisingly ignored the goofball comment.

"Boring? Katakura town was never boring; sure some days were bland but never boring." Ichigo wondered out loud. He knew his home very well and boring was never a word he would use to describe it.

Hearing Ichigo's statement Yoruichi sighed and shook her head, "True but things have gotten kind of dull while you've been gone."

Seeing the confused look was still on Ichigo's face she continued.

"Less hollows, no arrancar, barley any shinigami show up anymore. Hell even Kisuke has lessened the amount of crazy experiments he does. Everything's gotten downright boring." Yoruichi finished with the best pout the proud women could make.

After hearing all of this Ichigo finally understood why his former teacher had come to visit him. Ichigo was a massive beacon of spiritual pressure that attached both hollows and his friendships keep bring the shinigami back to the town itself. But once he left his hometown, that beacon vanished. Nowhere near as many hollows would appear in the town without his power attracting them and other than the single one needed to hunt the remaining hollows what reason would his friends have to go there (besides Rangiku's friendship with Orihime and her shopping)?

Ichigo was the spiritual center of the town and without him; things would go back to the way things were before he ever met Rukia, downright normal…and that had to drive Yoruichi crazy.

No one besides Kisuke and the cat women herself knew what Yoruichi did in her spare time before the insanity in Katakura had started. But one thing is for sure, the boring lifestyle that was offered in a normal Katakura town was not Yoruichi's style. She is a strong woman who enjoys a challenge along with a hint of mischief. And while Ichigo was not proud to admit it, wherever he was challenges and humor was sure to follow.

Turning back to his guest, Ichigo noticed Yoruichi had taken a seat in the chair next to his desk. "So…how's this place been to you? Anything interesting going on recently?" she asked him.

Ichigo shrugged and leaned back on his bed "It's been okay so far, a little weird at times but overall this place has been okay."

"The sun and moon freaked you out didn't they?" the amusement was evident in her voice when she asked this.

"Of course they did!" Ichigo all but shouted. How would anyone sane react to those things hovering above their heads? Heck, even now he could hear that thing above (the sun) laughing at him.

"I knew Kisuke forgot to tell you something…" Yoruichi giggled to herself. She figured something like that was going to happen to Ichigo. He had to have some of the worst luck in the history of the visards, but seeing that there weren't that many of them; it wasn't that big a deal.

Ichigo had the urge to slap himself on the head, "Damn…I'm going to beat the shit out of him the next time I see him."

That got a small chuckle from Yoruichi. She knew that Ichigo often had a punch first-ask questions later type of relationship with Kisuke, this little piece of information probably wouldn't help their relationship that much. The two of them continued their little conversation for a few more moments until someone opened Ichigo's door.

"HI Ichi! I brought some fish for you incase you were…" Blair said as she entered the room, carrying a plate of burnt fish with her as she entered the room. But when she noticed the other women (who was naked) sitting across from Ichigo her mind went blank.

"Ichigo…who is this?"

Ichigo, in his shortsightedness did not even consider Blair coming into his room while Yoruichi was here and so…had no idea of how to react to this situation. In the few seconds went by while he tried to figure out a response (his hollow was also sending pretty adult images to his head at the same time so that didn't help) Yoruichi decided to answer Blair's question herself.

"I'm Yoruichi Shihōin, an old friend of this knuckle head." The flash goddess said, gesturing her thumb at Ichigo while Blair stood there.

"But why are you naked?" Blair asked again, her voice having a little more anger in it this time. Ichigo on the other hand was mentally bashing his head against a wall. During his short time with Blair, Ichigo had learned that she was not a normal woman (or at least as normal as a magic using cat that could change into a woman could get). So why on earth did this have to be the one time she had to have a semi-normal reaction to this situation?

Hearing the emotion in her voice, Yoruichi smirked to herself as a idea popped into her head. Turning towards Ichigo, Yoruichi grabbed him by the shoulders and lead him towards the door.

"Could you take a step outside for a few minutes? I'd like to have a word with her." Yoruichi asked Ichigo who looked utterly confused with this turn of action.

"What! Hell no! I'm not lea-"Ichigo started to object, but was cut off by a stern look from his former teacher. A look that basically said 'Leave or I'll throw your ass out'.

"Ichigo." That got his attention, "This will only take a minute." And with that she pushed him out the door and closed it behind him.

**-Five minutes later-**

For the last few minutes there had been nothing but silence from his room, and that was nearly driving Ichigo insane. There was no yelling, no screaming, and thankfully no Blair being thrown though a wall by an enraged Yoruichi (and Ichigo was grateful for that). But this silence was really unnerving him. It even caused him to pace back and forth through the hallway, something that was very annoying to a certain hollow residing in his inner world.

"_King! It's getting foggy in here! What the hell are so nervous about?"_

But despite his hollow's words echoing throughout Ichigo's head, the young visard continued on with his pacing. Ichigo was fully aware of what effects his mood normally had on his inner world; it's just that he really didn't give a damn right now. There was the chance that a friend of his was getting the crap beaten out of her by an even older friend of his and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Ichigo just didn't know how to deal with that.

"**Ichigo…" **A calm yet booming voice came from inside Ichigo's inner world, causing the boy's feet to stop in their tracks.

_'Zangetsu…what is it? I really don't have the time to…'_

"…**It's kind of hard to read a book when you can't see three feet in front of you." **Zangetsu said again cutting off Ichigo and nearly causing the boy to fall on his ass in surprise. Grunting at the sword's sense of humor, Ichigo turned his sight on the closed door in front of him. Sighing to himself, Ichigo decided the time was waiting was over.

Grasping the doorknob, Ichigo very gently opened the door. Stepping inside, Ichigo was met with a very 'interesting' sight.

" ~Hi Ichigo~ "

This 'interesting' sight was both Blair and Yoruichi, both of them standing next to each other in a very sexy and luring way. Even their eyes were practically daring him to try something. A small part of Ichigo had nearly expected this was going to happen… if it wasn't for one small detail.

They were both completely naked. Now Ichigo wasn't surprised to find Yoruichi in such a position, but Blair? That was a completely different issue. Blair had always been a little naughty when she wanted to be. May it be a very small two piece bikini, a pair of 'very' short shorts, or even a very tiny towel, Blair was always able to get a hilarious reaction (in her mind at least) out of her shinigami friend. But this? This was far over the edge in Ichigo's case.

_"King...Please for all that is good in this world...Switch with me!" _His hollow quickly begged, but it fell on deaf ears.

So with a blush as bright as the sun itself, Ichigo did the only thing he could do…he fainted.

Collapsing onto the ground in unconsciousness, Ichigo missed the giggling that erupted between the two bombshells the moment his back smacked into the ground. A few seconds after their giggling had turned into a sea of laughter, Blair and Yoruichi released each other and calmly approached the fallen form lying before them.

"Aw." Blair whined as she kneeled down next to Ichigo's form, crossing her arms in a frustrated fashion.

"I was hoping to at least get a nose bleed out of him." She pouted, lightly poking Ichigo's unconscious form with her finger. Although disappointed, Blair had to admit it was hilarious to see the normally stoic Ichigo react in such a way.

"Classic Ichi." Yoruichi smirked, lightly poking Ichigo in the head with her foot. She really missed this side of Ichigo. It had been far too long since she had the chance to see Ichigo truly overreact to one of her pranks. And when that terrible tragedy struck Ichigo at the end of the war, she actually thought she'd never see him be the same again.

Oh there was never a time she was so happy that she was wrong.

**Sometime later, the streets of Death city.**

_'I swear someone hates me up there…'_

Those were Ichigo's thoughts as he strolled through the busy streets with two very gorgeous women following fairly close behind him. These two were known by most as Blair and Yoruichi, but to Ichigo they were his tormenters.

It had taken about fifteen minutes or so before Ichigo finally awoke from his embarrassment induced knock out. And upon awaking, Ichigo nearly had a relapse when he was embraced by a still naked Blair while a smug looking Yoruichi watched from afar.

The next few minutes was filled with Blair giving a very goofy and less than sincere apology while Yoruichi made comments about Ichigo's relationship with the magical kitty cat. But as Ichigo started to come back to his normal stubborn senses, Yoruichi thought up a hilarious idea.

With the help from the resident magical kitty cat, Yoruichi somehow convinced the visard to give her a grand tour around the city, with her being new and all.

At first Ichigo blatantly refused, claiming that the flash goddess would easily be able to find her way around the city. But with a little help from Blair, the two of them overpowered him with their cutest expressions they had (Yoruichi's was surprisingly much cuter then Blair's, she must have had years of practice).

So after the two of them got dressed, the trio left Ichigo's apartment and ventured out into the busy streets of Death City with a certain orange haired boy frowning all the way.

_"Eh don't complain so much, everyone has something that makes their life a living hell, even me."_

For the next hour or two, Ichigo remained nearly silent as the two women made through the city's many streets and shops. Clothing stores, shoe shops, and even a few restaurants were some of the examples of the places they had made their presence known with Blair being the main tour guide, Yoruichi being the humble visitor and with Ichigo of course being the respectful (yet annoyed) gentlemen that accompanied the two gorgeous women.

_'Oh really? And what pisses you off so much? Smart ass.'_

Luckily for Ichigo, this trip didn't come with the added luggage of countless shopping bags that his one with Blair days ago. This was mostly because of two things, the first being the fact that Yoruichi just wasn't nearly as interested in shopping as most women and the second being that fact that she had nearly no money (hey she came here as a cat, where would she put a wallet?). This of course didn't stop them from loading Ichigo up with a few shopping bags, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time.

_"Well there is Zangetsu, my endless boredom from being stuck in here, and of course…you!"_

_'What else is new… ?'_ Ichigo mentally groaned, tired of his hollow's complaining.

"Trouble?"

The orange haired viasrd just sighed to himself before turning to Yoruichi, who was sitting exit to him. Currently the trio had decided to take a break from the tour (much to Ichigo's relief), with Blair heading home for a little bit to try on some of her new clothes while Ichigo and Yoruichi sat together in a nearby park.

Scratching his head in annoyance, Ichigo leaned back in his seat before grumbling a reply, "Nah, it's just an annoying _white_ voice in my head."

_'Ah, the hollow.'_

Yoruichi had been informed about Ichigo's hollow by Kiskue sometime before Ichigo and his friends traveled off into Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime. In short, she wasn't too surprised to learn about it…never trust any kind of experiment that involved Kiskue Urahara, it never ends too well.

Hoping to get Ichigo's mind off a certain inhabitant of his inner world, Yoruichi decided their braked was about over. "So…where to now?"

Pushing his hollow's ramblings out of his current mindset, Ichigo actually had to think about where they should head to next. Despite Death City being a giant gothic metropolis, it really didn't have that many interesting places to visit. They had already visited various shops, a few parks, and they even visited the academy already. Although that last one didn't end too well.

_**Flashback: DWMA, The Death Room.**_

_"What lovely Ladies!"_

_Ichigo should have seen this coming a mile away .Of all the places he could have been dragged to in this city, of all the shops, of all the stores, why on earth did it have to be the place with this nut worked?_

_So here they were. Ichigo, Blair, and Yoruichi were standing in the center of the death room while their present host, Shinigami-sama and his personal weapon, Spirit standing before them. Yoruichi had somehow learned about Ichigo's present place of employment (Ichigo blamed Kiskue) and asked Ichigo to take her there. So after about five minutes of asking, Ichigo finally relented and agreed to take her there later. So a few hours later Ichigo kept his promise and lead his two friends to the Death Weapons Meister Academy (luckily school was over so he didn't have to deal with BlackStar for awhile).The three of them explored the various classrooms and other such areas the school offered before heading to the main honcho's office. There waiting for them was the headmaster of the academy, Shinigami-sama and his trusty death scythe, Spirit._

_And of course in his completely expected and yet still annoying fashion (to at least two of the shinigami anyway), Spirit was already head over heels in love (in his mind anyway) with these lovely ladies._

_"Ichigo…who is this guy?" Yoruichi asked, gesturing over to the strange suited man hugging Blair's leg._

_But before Ichigo managed to reply, the lord death himself cut into the conversation._

_"It's nice to see you again Yoruichi-san, it's been too long."Shinigami-sama greeted her with a slight bow before shaking his head in annoyance, "As to your question, this is Spirit. My trusty and loyal death scythe…who unfortunately has a very big 'problem' with women. "._

_Just as the shinigami finished that sentence the three of them looked over at the very strange man, who was still trying to hug Blair. He had hearts in his eyes and even a bit of drool coming out of his mouth, all of which nearly caused Ichigo to blow a gasket. _

_Shinigami-sama sweat dropped at his weapon's inappropriate actions, "Unfortunately that's one problem I have yet to beat out of him…"_

_"How about I give it a shot!" Ichigo grunted, cracking his knuckles in anger._

_But Yoruichi had another idea, one that would surely be hilarious in her eyes. Sending a slight glance to the two other shinigami, the flash goddess approached the slightly humorous scene. _

_With her hips swing slightly, Yoruichi walked up to Spirit just a few seconds before Ichigo was about to pummel the scythe for his actions. Without even saying a word, Spirit released Blair's leg and zoomed to Yoruichi's side with one of the most perverted smile that anyone in the room had ever seen._

_Immediately he started his normal antics that consisted of complements on her beauty, love struck eyes, and the oh so annoying lovey-dovey attitude. In fact, every moment he even spoke during this time, Ichigo was becoming ever so closer to beating him into the ground with all the strength he had._

_But before Spirit even had a chance to take a feel of the beautiful flash goddess, something very hard and painful hit him first._

_With one swing of her leg, Yoruichi delivered a devastating and extremely painful kick to Spirit's face. It was so devastatingly strong that not only did it send the perverted weapon flying, but it also sent him clear through a nearby wall and out of the school completely!_

_"Whoa…" _

_That was the general thought of everyone who had just witnessed the devastating attack. Ichigo nearly burst out laughing at the scene, seeing the perverted man get the crap beaten out of him was hilarious to the young visard. Hey, if he wasn't going to get to pummel the guy himself then he was glad someone else did._

_Blair just giggled to herself. She really didn't mind the guy's attitude, but it was fun to him being sent flying through a wall._

_And the lord death himself? He merely walked over to Yoruichi (who was smirking), raised his right hand, and smiled (at least his kind of smiling) at her._

_"High Five!"_

_**Flashback End.**_

Ichigo nearly chuckled at that memory. Seeing spirit being tossed around like a rag doll was one thing, but seeing lord Death actually going over to Yoruichi and giving her a high five was just hilarious! Seeing her actually return it nearly made his hollow bust a gut! Hell, even Zangetsu smiled at it! It was just great; Spirit had to go to the nurse's office and Yoruichi revealed that she was an old friend of Shinigami-sama (hey, with Urahara being a friend of his it wasn't too surprising).

"Ichigo? What the hell are you staring at?"

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Ichigo realized that during the little flashback of his he had been starring off at random…or more precisely at the woman next to him.

"Sorry…I was just thinking of something else." Ichigo replied, turning away from Yoruichi.

"About me?"

"What!" Ichigo shouted in surprise, nearly falling backwards off the bench he was sitting on. Looking back to his friend, Ichigo scowled at the sight of the grinning shinigami, she really found that amusing.

"Very funny…"

"Only with you Ichi, only with you…" Yoruichi trailed off, grinning at herself.

Shaking his head in annoyance, Ichigo leaned his back against the bench he was sitting on and attempted to let his mind wonder. But when you have someone like Yoruichi was currently sitting next to you, it was quite hard to do so. So a few moments past by with utter silence being the only thing going on before something loud and annoying shattered any type of peace that was currently in the air. But foe once, this was not Ichigo's fault…mostly.

Turning toward the source that annoying noise, Ichigo dug his hand into one of his pockets and pulled out the source. It was that over the top copy of shinigami-sama's mask…and its eyes were glowing.

"The hell…?" Ichigo muttered, inspecting the badge closer.

"Wow…and I thought your badge was lame." Yoruichi snickered, getting a glare in response.

But before anyone could make any more noise, the mask's eyes suddenly stopped glowing and a even more annoying voice started to emerge from the device. It was loud, squeakily, and slightly familiar voice that Ichigo recognized all too soon.

**"Ah Kurosaki-kun! Yoruichi-chan! How's it going? Has Death City been good to you?"**

It was shinigami-sama in all his goofy and humorous glory.

"Old man…why are calling me on this…'thing'?" Ichigo asked before an even more obvious question hit him, "And how in the hell are you calling me?"

Back at the academy, Shinigami-sama actually rubbed his chin at that question.

**"Did not tell you about the communicator I installed into the device? I'm pretty sure I did…" **The shinigami answered, swearing that he had informed the boy about the device's little feature.

Oh if only he could see the tick mark developing on Ichigo's forehead, "No one ever tells me anything!"

"Don't worry Ichi," Yoruichi patted his shoulder with sympathy, "I'm here for you."

Not knowing if he should take Yoruichi's statement seriously, Ichigo returned to the matter at hand. Sighing to himself, Ichigo looked back to the strange mask-like device in his hand, "Ok old man, what is it now? And it better not be another wild goose chase!"

That got Yoruichi's interest, "Wild goose chase? What wild goose chase?"

Ichigo glanced back at her, "Don't ask."

**"Well, I've gotten some complaints about someone screaming bloody murder…and you're nearby. So I was hoping you could check it out." **Shinigami-sama explained the best he could, at that's not saying much.

There was awkward silence for a few seconds before Ichigo spoke up, "…Seriously? That's it?"

**"Yep."** The shinigami cheerfully replied, getting a sweat drop from both of them.

Ichigo didn't even bother replying to that. With a face palm, Ichigo just crammed the mask back into his jacket and rain his hands through his hair in annoyance. Looking over to Yoruichi, he noticed she was staring at him with one of her 'looks'.

Sighing to himself (He noticed he had been doing that a lot lately), Ichigo got up from the bench and grabbed Zangetsu (he's not going to sit on a bench with a giant sword attached to his back! That would hurt like hell). Reattaching the sword to his back, Ichigo pulled the mask-like device shinigami-sama gave him and waited for it to point the way.

Seeing that the mask was glowing brighter as he pointed it towards the exit of the park, Ichigo figured that was the way to all of this madness. Cramming the mask back once again into his jacket, Ichigo was about to tell Yoruichi what the hell was going on…until he noticed that she wasn't there anymore. Spending a few seconds looking for his dark skinned friend, Ichigo finally noticed her as she…she was already half way there!

"Hey!" Ichigo attempted to call out to her, but all he got in return was a sly smirk from the flash goddess as she moved even faster in that direction.

"I don't believe it…"

Reaching into his pocket, Ichigo grabbed his combat badge and slammed it into his chest.

"…How the hell did I not see that coming!"

And with that, Ichigo donned his shinigami garb and vanished in a burst of shunpo in an attempt to catch up to the dark skinned beauty. Unfortunately for him, Yoruichi wasn't known as the flash goddess of the Soul Society for nothing and thus insured that the visoredwas up for one hell of a chase.

**A few minutes…and a hell of a lot of running later.**

A loud sickening scream echoed through the air before being followed by the disturbing sound of something hitting the ground with a hard thud. That was all the reason Ichigo need to investigate whatever was happening on the other side of this wall.

Taking a quick glance at Yoruichi, who was looking very serious, Ichigo did a quick jump and landed on the wall's top, allowing him to view the entire situation easily. But what he saw was as much a surprise to him as it was for most people.

The entire area was covered by warning tape. Yes, the same tape you would see at a crime scene or something like that. It was nearly everywhere, rapping itself around the strange pillars of stone that were everywhere…which begs the question, where the hell where they?

Its turns out that while he was blindly chasing after Yoruichi, Ichigo and her had somehow left death city without even realizing it.

Turns out they were at a seemingly abandoned castle, it was quite obvious due to the structure's massive size and damaged outer condition. It was very strange though, the entrance was not normal! It was a giant chameleon head for crying out loud! Its tongue was even sticking out! Like it was mocking him!

"Damn you!"

Ichigo's thoughts about their current location were shattered as his attention was returned to the courtyard in front of him.

There standing in the middle of the courtyard was a large humanoid-like figure, which by the look of it was going to drop dead at any time now. Covering his large hulking body were numerous cuts and slashes, like as if the man had been attacked by a really pissed off cat with claws the size of machetes. Even the man's massive and grotesque face was sliced up. But it didn't really seem to bother the man that much, he just continued to sneer and bleed from his wounds.

"Why do protect that bitch! It's just a bloody witch!"The evil human bellowed, his eyes glaring at someone.

Ichigo followed the creature's gaze and came upon a man. It was a tall, lean man with long, shaggy sand colored hair. He was wearing a pair of dark-colored dress pants with a pair of sandals along with a long brown coat draped over his shoulders. In his hand was a long katana with a red colored hilt. His face was deadly serious, his eyes a blue shade to them as they drilled into the evil human's skull.

He spoke nothing as the monster continued to question his actions, his grip on his sword growing ever tighter.

But soon enough the monster had enough and charged at the man with all its force, "That's it! You're dead!"

The beast of a man rushed at the silent swordsman with an impressive speed, but all the time the swordsman didn't move a muscle. As the creature of a man finally came upon the man, a swift strike was struck and the two men became still. Blood dripped from the swordsman's blade for a few seconds..

Until it happened, the evil human's head slid off the creature's body, creating a bloody splash as the limb fell to the ground with a disturbing squish. With that done, the evil human's body suddenly glowed pitch black before unraveling itself until it was nothing but a small red glowing ball, a kishin egg.

Yoruichi and Ichigo could help but be impressed by the display. But while doing this, Ichigo could help but notice the countless other kishin eggs that were floating throughout the courtyard. So this was where the bloody screams of death were coming from, it was from this man's killing of countless other evil humans? Eh, who knew?

"What are you two doing up there?" The swordsman called to them.

Mifune was annoyed. Besides the normal crap he had to deal with (like protecting the castle the young witch resided in by the evil humans that tried to break in), he was annoyed. After finishing off the latest of the fools, he noticed two presences that were watching him. Looking over to the wall of the castle, the samurai noticed an orange haired youth and a dark skinned woman sitting there, watching him.

Ichigo on the other hand was… neutral. He was trading glances with a man who, with one simple swing, decapitated a very large and gruesome looking monster. Now he wasn't that impressed with the idea of killing something that big, he had seen much larger hollows be taken out just as easily. But the fact that it was a normal (or as normal as it gets around here) human that did that was why it was surprising.

"Hey." Ichigo bluntly said no other idea of what to say.

"What are you doing here?" Mifune asked again, not willing to be chatty with this orange haired punk.

Ichigo pointed at the kishin eggs before he replied, "The screaming, you can hear them all the way in death city."

Mifune just shrugged before walking back to the castle's entrance.

"Why did that monster attack you?" Yoruichi asked, somehow appearing near the castle's door without anyone noticing. This of course led to two things. One being Ichigo, who just did a face palm at the antics of the flash goddess (truthfully he hadn't even noticed her vanish from his side). And the second was Mifune, who was actually surprised by this woman's sudden appearance.

But despite her sudden appearance in the courtyard, Mifune just raised an eyebrow before crouching down and leaning against the castle's wall. Resting his katana against his shoulder, Mifune sighed to himself before explaining.

"They are after the power of the witch who resides in this castle," Mifune grunted before gesturing toward the castle behind him.

"A witch? Why are you protecting a witch?" Ichigo asked the samurai.

Mifune sent a cold glare at the young boy before replying, sitting up while he did so.

"That is my business boy, besides it seems we have much more important things to deal with right now."

Confused, Ichigo looked into the man's dark eyes and realized that they were no longer directed at him. Following the man's gaze, Ichigo came across a shocking sight at the main entrance to the courtyard. Standing there was a horde of evil humans; all were of various sizes and shapes. But there was one thing certain, they were all enraged. The one in the center front stepped forward, he was large behemoth figure with muscles bulging and very gruesome bald head (He was even uglier then the last one!).

"You killed Kenny! You Bastards!" The monster roared, but only got a giggle from Yoruichi in return.

"Let's tear them apart!" Another one screamed, getting a few cheers from a few others in the horde.

"I call dibs on the bitch, she looks tasty!" Ichigo gripped Zangetsu for that comment, how dare he say that!

"Enough!" The center one called out again, clearly this was the leader of the group. "We came for that witch didn't we? Stop ageing about these shrimps and let's go kill the bitch!"

Those words got the rest of the horde to shout in glee but it also caused something else. Mifune, who had been just standing there for the most part, suddenly took a very angry expression on his face. Glancing around the area, he spotted a large piece of stone that had broken off from one of the many pillars that were scattered around the courtyard. Picking it up, Mifune tossed it up in the air a few times before he threw it straight toward the group of evil human (or more accurately at their leader).

The stone sailed though the air in a split second, smashing itself against the face of the leading evil human. With a sickening crunch, the rock shattered into a million pieces along with the creature's nose.

"AGH! My nose! Why you son of a..AGH!" The creature screamed in rage before being cut off by another stone smashing into his face.

Mifune turned his head and noticed Ichigo had also tossed a significantly larger rock at the ugly creature. Sending a questionable look at the visord, Ichigo just shrugged his shoulders before pulling Zangetsu off his back.

"Hey, these guys piss me off." Ichigo grunted, hey it was the truth.

Mifune nodded at that answer before turning back to the group of evil humans. Their leader just finished cluching his nose before turning his even more enraged eyes on the two.

"You Bastards! How dare you **'CRUNCH'** ...**Mother Fuckers!**."

Both men looked in surprise as yet another rock (even bigger this time!) smashed into the man's face with a sickening crunch. Turning their heads around, they noticed a very innocent Yoruichi standing beside them, her hands behind her back.

She smiled an eerie grin at them, "What? It seems like fun."

The two of them sweat dropped at her simple reason but none the less they nodded. But their little interaction was cut short when an ear splitting screech of rage and pain filled the air.

"God Damn it! My nose…**KILL THESE IDIOTS!"**

The roar of pain's origin came from the leader of the horde of evil humans. Apparently, that last stone shattered not only the man's nose, but his pride as well!

In response to seeing their leader getting his massive nose crushed by the countless stones, the remaining members of the horde roared in anger and charged to trio. Their main focus being Mifune himself, but as a large focus of the monsters ran straight for the samurai himself, a few of them broke off from the pack and charged to two shinigami as well.

Oh, such fools these creatures were.

The first group of them met up with Ichigo first and met a hasty end with the help of his Zangetsu. Swinging the massive sword forward, Ichigo sliced the massive creature though the neck, taking the monster's head clean off. Another soon dove for Ichigo's legs, hoping to take the boy down to the ground before swarming over him. But before he even got close to him, Ichigo swung his large blade downward and impaled the large creature in the center of its face. With a evil human now stuck to his sword, Ichigo merely swung his weapon off to the side loosening the massive creature and sending it flying into another group of monsters that were standing off to the side.

Grasping Zangetsu's hilt with both hands, Ichigo prepared to launch a nameless Getsuga Tenshou at a large sum of evil humans that were preparing to attack him. But before he could launch said attack, he was surprised to see another evil human crash into them with an insane amount of force. Looking toward the origin of the creature, Ichigo wasn't surprised one bit with what he saw.

Yoruichi was just standing there completely surrounded by a large sum of evil humans of various sizes and shapes. But despite all of that Yoruichi was perfectly calm and content with all of this, hell it was the evil humans that looked scared shitless! After seeing their buddy get the unholy crap beaten out of him, none of these creatures even dared approach her. But of course, there was always at least one or two fools hat went against the majority.

One of the larger ones (if Yoruichi had to describe him she would say this goof looked like a disgruntled cave man) finally had enough of this and charged the shinigami in a fury. Oh what a fool he was.

As he got within a inch closer to her, Yoruichi was on him in a instant. With a simple straight kick to the creatures chin Yoruichi easily took the monster down in a matter of seconds. But it was not just a simple kick. No, this kick had so much force behind it that not only did it stop the evil human in its tracks but it also took its entire head off its shoulders!

You could nearly hear the evil humans simultaneously think about how screwed they were as they watched their allies' body collapse to the ground and unravel into a kishin egg. They were bonded.

Hell, one of the smarter ones simply walked up to the shinigami and bowed his head to her before saying, "Just make it quick."

Yoruichi happily complied.

Meanwhile, Mifune was having a little trouble with his bunch. It's not that they were too challenging for him, hell no! He could wipe the floors wit these fools in a matter of minutes. It was the fact that he was having trouble keeping his jaw in place while watching these two strangers tear these evil humans apart with about as much effort as a normal person would need to play a card game.

It was pathetic to say the least.

Lopping off the head of another creature; Mifune tired to return his focus to this own opponents. But with massive explosions of energy (Ichigo) and the sounds of bones shattering (Yoruichi), it was pretty difficult.

But while Mifune was busy, he failed to notice a very large and buff monster charging at him. Seeing the opportunity, the creature readied its massive fist and slammed it down on the samurai with insane force. Hoping to see the samurai as a muttering broken corpse, the monster gazed toward its arm in glee. But there was no broken body on the receiving end of that blow, there was only Mifune himself. He was completely unscarred and even standing on the monster's arm as if it was a wooden pillar , his legs bent and his katana at the beast's throat.

With one desivive slash, the samurai took the monster's head, leaped off its limb, and dove toward another.

The fighting continued for another few minutes with countless more of the invading kishin wanabes, the trio watched humorously as the significantly smaller horde of evil humans back off their assault.

Now if it was just Mifune defending the castle he would have easily let these fools run away with their lives. It was not in his interest to pursue a bunch of cowards that had foolishly believed they could defeat him in a fight. But unfortunately for them, he wasn't alone this day.

Slowing bringing his Zanpakuto behind his back, Ichigo brought his weapon forward in a mighty swing, shouting two defying words as spiritual energy violently burst out of the blade's tip.

"Getsuga Tenshou."

A massive ark of pure energy exploded forth, slicing anything in its path as it traveled across the courtyard. The horde of monsters could only watch in horror as their doom approached them at a breakneck speed, they couldn't even scream in terror before it engulfed him. The energy tore through them like a hurricane, rending them into ash in less than a second. Hell, if it wasn't for the fact that evil humans normally turned into Kishin eggs after they were slain, there would be nothing left but a small pile of ash.

"Damn, I never get tired of that." Yoruichi clapped as Ichigo rested his massive cleaver on his back.

Mifune merely stood in shock at the massive destruction caused by that one boy.

But before he could get even further on the subject, a loud and vey familiar voice erupted from the castle, and it was heading straight for him.

"MIFUNE!"

The two shinigami were taken by surprise as a very small but very quick object shot out from one of the castles upper towers and smashed into the samurai. Looking in closer to the scene, the two of them had to actually try to stop themselves from bursting out in laughter.

It turns out that the object that shot through the air like a cannon ball was actually a little girl. Wearing a large witch's hat (with had a chameleon's face on the front), the little girl hugged the samurai very tightly as her looked towards the shinigami in wonder (and a little annoyance).

"Mifune! I heard a big boom! Are these two picking on you!" The little girl asked, her arms swinging around frantically with concern.

Mifune lightly chuckled at the little girls concern. Picking himself up from the ground, the samurai ruffled the girl's hair as the two shinigami just looked on with interest.

"I'm fine these two were actually helping me." Mifune calmed the little girl down, but by doing so he also turned the little one's attention toward the two shinigami.

"You!" The little one pointed at Ichigo, getting the shinigami to raise his eyebrow in confusion.

"What are you doing here orange guy? Are you messing with Mifune?"

Unfortunately, that little comment nearly made Ichigo shatter is calm mood. Now during the early years of Ichigo's life, he was always the center of attention due to his odd hair color. As strange as his orange hair may be, it was completely natural and those remarks annoyed him at times. So after fighting a horde of evil humans…this is what he gets? An insult from a little girl? Are you serious! Where did this little brat even come from….what a minute…

"Angela, don't insult our guests." Mifune told the girl in a stern voice. Angela only grunted and narrowed her eyes at Ichigo before turning to her guardian.

"But Mifune! I saw his big pointy thing glow blue and went Boom!"

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at the little girl, not amused at her bland description of his Getsuga Tenshou. But behind the young visard, Yoruichi couldn't help but giggle at nearly everything the young witch had said. It was funny!

"So, who is this brat?" Ichigo asked, tired of all this crap (although Angela did glare at him because of that comment).

But before the samurai could open his mouth to explain, the young witch beat him to it.

"I'm Angela you orange headed goof! I'm the witch of this castle and this is Mifune!" Angela said, hugging Mifune closer in the process, "He protects me from all the baddies like you!"

_'He protects…her…?'_ Ichigo mentally wondered.

"She's right." Mifune said, finally getting a say in, "Angela is far too young to use her magic so that's why I'm here."

Unfortunately, the news that this little girl was witch gave the young visard a problem, as if he didn't have too many of them already. Normally he would have to inform the headmaster of anything even related to a witch, but did he really have to?

While trying to think of something, Ichigo noticed the massive amount of kishin eggs that were flouting around the giant court yard. Now he had to give Shinigami-sama some explanation for whatever was making those ear shattering screams the goofball was hearing. So why not just tell him that there was a large number of evil humans in the area and he had taken care of them? That way the boss would be happy and he wouldn't have to tell him about the witch or Mifune.

Taking the mask-like device out of his pocket, Ichigo spied a very large red button on its underside. Pressing it, Ichigo was surprised to see the mask's eyes suddenly glow a dark red before it activated. Like an industrial vacuum cleaner, the mask started to suck up all of the kishin eggs like they were dust bunnies. But unfortunately, the moment Mifune saw the mask his hand instantly went to his katana.

"You work for Death?" Mifune asked, pulling Angela closer to himself.

"Huh?" Ichigo looked at them confused until he remembered the mask he was holding. It looked just like Shinigami-sama's mask and thus they thought he was there working for him. Knowing the academy's reaction toward witches, Ichigo was not surprised at the concern the samurai had. So after capturing the remaining kishin eggs, Ichigo placed the mask back into his pocket and shrugged.

"It's more of an arrangement."

"How so…?" Mifune questioned, he didn't trust those who worked for death, especially with his track record when concerning witches.

Ichigo sighed, he hated explaining, "Simply put, he gives me a place to live and I help him out from time to time, no big deal."

Mifune didn't seem too convinced, "If that's the case, the why are you here?"

"There was screaming, the old man heard about it and asked me to investigate…not that I wanted to or anything." Ichigo explained, sending Yoruichi a small glare as he finished. It was technically her fault that he was here, having to chase her throughout the city had ended them both up at the castle.

"Well, thank you…" Mifune was about to that the two of them for their assistance, but he then remembered on thin important…he had no idea what their names were.

"I'm Yoruichi, and this goofball here is Ichigo." Yoruichi informed the samurai and witch, wrapping her arm around Ichigo and bringing the boy close in the process.

"Strawberry?" Unfortunately, Angela couldn't help but make a comment about Ichigo's name…

_"HA! Even in a country on the other side of the world, you're still a Strawberry!"_

Ah, theres the obnoucious comment from the resident hollow…who didn't see that coming?

So before Ichigo could explode into a rant because of that comment, Yoruichi decided that it was about the time for them to leave.

"Sorry for the short goodbye but its about time for us to be going." The flash goddess informed the duo before turning her toward a confused (and still annoyed) Ichigo. And with a very quick snag, the purple haired beauty swiped Zangetsu off Ichigo's back and vanished in flash.

The samurai, witch, and even the shinigami looked at the spot where Yoruichi once stood for a few seconds before it hit them. She ditched them (or more precisely Ichigo)…again!

**"You know…you should have seen that coming…" **Zangetsu informed his wielder, not even taking his eyes off his book as he did so.

_'I know…' _Ichigo couldn't disagree despite the fact that he wanted too…he should have seen this coming…again.

**"Good, now would you please go after her? I don't like to be man handled…"** The Zanpaktuo slammed the book he was currently reading for emphasis. He knew his statement didn't make that much sense but still…Ichigo was his wielder and he didn't like anyone else holding his manifested state besides him.

_'Damn…'_ Ichigo cursed to himself before turning to the Mifune and Angela, who looked completely confused (or at least Angela did, Mifune was a little hard to tell).

Giving the two of them a small 'See you later' nod, Ichigo vanished in a blur, leaving the two current residences of the caste to themselves.

"Well…that was strange." Mifune said, getting a nod of agreement from the young witch in his arms. Who would have guessed that two vastly powerful people would randomly show up just in time for a horde of enemies to arrive at the castle with the intent to harm Angela? Mifune didn't.

Well, at least it wasn't a little kid with an unhealthy obsession with becoming greater than god. That would have been really annoying.

_[Same Time, Death City Hot Spring]_

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a ticklish feeling came upon a certain blue haired child's nose. Unprepared for this, the kid let out a surprisingly loud sneeze.

"Achoo!"

Wiping his nose, Black Star couldn't help but chuckle at that. Someone must be talking about the awesomely powerful ninja that would one day surpass god! But unfortaunaly for that ninja, his sudden sneeze had caused the black haired beauty that was currently washing herself off in the spring below to become aware of his presence.

"Black Star you PERVERT!"

**A Couple hours Later, Ichigo's Apartment.**

After a few more hours of chasing the Soul Society's quickest resident, Ichigo finally managed to convince the flash goddess to give him back his Zanpakuto. But of course this came with a price, which was letting Yoruichi sped the night with him (Oh big surprise). She explained that she had to leave in the morning and really needed to find a nice place to stay for the night.

It was a wonder why Ichigo never asked why she had stay until the next day… he just forgets things like that…

So returning a few hours later, Ichigo was greeted with something fairly expected…Blair nearly hugged him to death.

"Oh Ichi! I was so worried! After you vanished I thought something happened to you!"

Apparently Blair had gone searching for the duo not that long after they got the call from Lord Death. After spending nearly the entire day trying to find the duo, the kitty had become quite worried about them. So imagine her surprise and relief when the two of them walked through the door a few hours later…saying she was ecstatic would be an understatement.

"Blair…a little too tight…" Ichigo whizzed out, his face drowned in a massive blush as she pulled him even deeper into her chest. God, if only Kon could see him now.

Yoruichi watched this humorous scene with a smile, but there was something else. Was that a little jealousy in her eyes? Nah, that was impossible…wasn't it?

So after nearly suffocating Ichigo with a hug, Blair was given the basic explanation of what had happened. Nearly everything from getting the call and meeting Mifune to Ichigo chasing Yoruichi all over the city was explained, which of course lead to Yoruichi mentioning the 'Strawberry' comment Angela made. That lead to what anyone would have expected…

"Aw, how did I never think of that? My Strawberry!" Blair shouted in glee, embracing Ichigo in yet another hug as she jumped off the couch she was previously sitting on.

The glare Ichigo sent to the shinigami sitting next to him could have split a Menos Grande in half. Why did she have to mention that?

Yoruichi just grinned at the glare, was that really suppose to frighten her? Please, Yachiru could look at glare and laugh at it (and then Kenpachi would demand a rematch, but let's not get into that). So instead of just grinning back at him, the flash goddess decided to do something a little bit better. Scooting closer to the glaring shinigami, Yoruichi gave him a small smirk before giving him something she was sure he would enjoy weather he wanted to or not. Inching closer to the orange mop of hair, Yoruichi gave him a small kiss on the cheek. Sure it was nothing big or fancy, but it got the job done.

And the job was to get Ichigo out of his crappy mood, and it did that and more. The glare had vanished completely and in its place was not only a look of complete and utter surprise, but a blush as well. With his annoyance gone as fast as the wind, Ichigo tried to think of a way out of this.

_"King…could I possibly…"_ Ichigo's hollow tried to ask, but was cut off by a shockingly pissed off Ichigo.

_'If you ask to switch with me one more time…I'll toss you back into that pit for an entire WEEK!'_

_"NO! Not the pit! Anything but that!"_ The hollow quickly responded, clearly having no intension to returning to **that **place any time soon.

Sitting between two gorgeous women was not how Ichigo had imagined spending his night…although things never really worked out the way he planned…ever.

But after around a half an hour later, the trio heard a fairly loud chiming of a clock. Looking for the source, the trio noticed a clock hanging on one of the walls. Noticing how late it was, Ichigo decided it was about time for bed (and no, this was not an excuse to get out of the situation he was currently in...maybe).

After preparing the guest room for Yoruichi (the vacant room in Ichigo's apartment, Blair never used it so it has been empty this entire time), Ichigo went off to the bathroom to change. But when he turned his back on the two ladies, he missed the smirk the two of them traded with each other before vanishing in a two puffs of smoke.

Unknown to Ichigo, while he was changing into his bedtime swag, two furry kitties slowly snuck into his bedroom. With a silent jump, the two cats jumped onto and hid under the covers of the shinigami's bed with him completely unaware. So after a few minutes, Ichigo exited his bathroom wearing a simple t-shirt and a pair of boxers. He tiredly climbed into his bed and pulled the confiders over his head, but while he drifted off into a deep sleep, he didn't notice the two resident kitties slowly crawl up the bed's frame until they reached the orange mop that was Ichigo's head.

Yoruichi watched in interest as the other kitty slowly purred with affection, snuggling up to the sleeping teen. Her eyes even widened slightly when she noticed something very rare appear on Ichigo's face. He smiled! No, this was not a smirk or anything like that. But it was a real smile! The flash goddess had rarely ever seen Ichigo smile like this!

So being the curious kitten that she was, Yoruichi tried her hand in this. Slowly inching herself over to the boy, she nearly screamed in surprise as a strong arm suddenly wrapped itself around her tiny body. The warm energy that was Ichigo's nearly unlimited reiatsu poured over her, its vast energy seemingly trying to protect her just like its master would have. If she didn't have fur, then she would most likely be blushing right now.

As Yoruichi noticed Ichigo's smile get a little larger during this exchange, she grinned to herself as a sudden thought came to her.

_'Man, I wish I had a camera…'_

* * *

><p>Now, as I stated above….I am so sorry for how long it took me to get this chapter out. I would like to say that there was some traumatic event that caused me not to update for a long time…but I can't, I just can't. With how long this chapter was, the characters in it, and my own laziness…that's all I can say. I'm sorry everyone…I truly am. But now for some important information.<p>

**I need a Beta.**

Now there is multiple reasons for this, my grammar and spelling mistakes being one of the bigger reasons. But a major reason for his is this delay itself; I don't want it to happen again. So if I get a Beta, I'll have some around to remind me to update far more frequently then I currently do. So if you feel up to it, feel free to PM me if you want to become my Beta (I also plan to let my beta have some say in the story, nothing like pairings or major battles but you will have a say in the story).

Notes about the Chapter:

1.)-Now, next Chapter Yoruichi will be leaving. But do not worry, she will return and have a far larger role in the story.

2.)-Now a reason why this chapter took so long was because of Mifune and Toruichi appearing in the chapter. They are two of my favorite characters in their series and I really wanted to due them justice. I really hope I did, but you people are the judge of that.

3.)-That little crack between Ichigo and his hollow at the end of the chapter about throwing him in a hole will be explained later...trust me.

4.)-I'm sorry if people were hoping to see Mifune fight Ichigo in this chapter, but I really couldn't think of a good way to do it. Most people who do these kinds of Fics just go with the whole "He's protecting a witch! Lets fight!", I really didn't want to do that (I'm not bashing people who do that, I just didn't want to). At this point in the Manga, Mifune is just protecting Angela and that's something Ichigo can respect. Now they will fight later in the story (aka: when Mifune joins a certain something) just don't expect it soon.

Next Chapter: School, Zombies, and What the Hell is with the Screw in his Head?


	7. Another Mayrui? Zombies and a son? WTF!

**Sorry for the long wait my friends, but hopefully this long chapter will make you forgive me somewhat...Anyway enough talk, lets get to the story!**

"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"_-Hollow/Weapon Form talking

**"Fight!"**-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name

* * *

><p>It had been a little crazy (or more so than normal) with the flash goddess around, but Ichigo enjoyed it, it was nice to see a familiar face around.<p>

With their 'interesting' first encounter, Blair and Yoruichi somehow became very good friends, with their main source of entertainment being Ichigo himself. Whenever Ichigo was busy at the academy, the two nekos would normally wander the city, exploring the sites and waiting around for their favorite vizard to show up. Hell, with Yoruichi around Ichigo even had someone to train with.

Overall it was an interesting time.

But like always this had to end sooner or later, and for Ichigo it was a little too soon for his tastes. Yoruichi had to return to the Soul Society (apparently she was given some sort of new position due to Soifon having taken over the 2nd division in her absence) and had to check up with them every so often.

Promising to come back and visit from time to time, the flash goddess of the Soul Society departed Death City in a flash (but not before giving Ichigo a playful kiss on the cheek), leaving Ichigo with a small smirk on his face (not to mention the blush he had as well).

With the departure of Yoruichi, things soon started to return to normal or as close to normality as the city could get anyway.

Nothing truly interesting had happened during this time. Sure there was a few this that had happened to other people, like how Ichigo heard that Black Star had been sent on a mission to hunt down a mobster organization and did as well as anyone had expected him to do (aka: He talked too loud and blew their cover). This somehow led the loudmouth ninja to come in contact with a certain witch and her samurai guardian…with some unexpected results on both ends of the situation. But other than that, Death City had been roughly peaceful for a time.

There was a case where a certain teacher at the Death Weapon's Meister Academy had been murdered by having miniature of the stature of liberty plunged into his forehead, but no one seemed to care that much.

But as if some higher power saw fit to throw a wrench into the gears of this peace, things were about to take a very strange turn for the worse…at least for the sanity of everyone that is.

**A few days later, DWMA's Crescent Moon Classroom:**

So far, the school day had surprisingly started out fairly normal at the DWMA. There was no expositions, no Black Start related insanity, and nothing too bizarre. The students were lightly chatting with themselves and there was no sign of the substitute teacher as of yet. So peaceful…or boring, it depended on how you viewed the situation.

And on the bored side of this argument was our resident Vizard, Ichigo Kurosaki. Leaning back in his chair, the hybrid really had nothing on through his mind at the moment. It was just an average start to the day and he really didn't want to be there…like most teens felt when it came to the concept of coming to school early.

But of course…

"Maka-Chop!"**'BANG' **"OW! What the Hell? What was that for!"

…there was always something to entertaining happening in this messed up school.

Glancing to his side, Ichigo noticed Maka and Soul were going through a common routine that the two followed this early in the morning. Maka was trying to read one of her books and Soul was obviously trying to distract her with his needless comments. This of course led to a painful meeting of Soul's forehead and the index of Maka's book.

But just as Ichigo was going to lay his head back and patently wait for the replacement teacher to arrive, a booming voice was heard over the intercom of the academy.

**[Ichigo Kurosaki, please report to the Death Room.]**

"Figures…"

Sticking his hands in his pockets, Ichigo made his way out of the classroom and down the hallways of the academy. But as he did so, he noticed a familiar suit wearing red head walking towards him in the opposite direction. Noticing a familiar clip board in Spirit's hand, the idea of a substitute teacher had become slightly less…favorable.

"Strawberry."

"Pervert."

Trading comments to one another, the vizard and death scythe just walked past each other without even a glance to one another. But as Ichigo continued on his way to the headmaster's office, he couldn't help but let loose a small chuckle.

He could already hear Maka smash her head against her desk the moment she saw who their substitute teacher was for today.

Soon enough however Ichigo arrived at his destination. Walking though the double doors and the row of guillotines, Ichigo soon found himself in front of the headmaster of the entire academy. Walking up to the goofy looking shinigami, Ichigo looked at the headmaster in annoyance.

"Ok, what's this about?" With that, Shinigami-sama looked at Ichigo with a cheerful look in his eyes.

"Well, I need a favor from you Ichigo," That got a raised eyebrow from Ichigo, "And it has to do with your friends Maka, Soul, BlackStar, and Tsubaki."

Ichigo looked a tad bit surprised at that, so he continued to listen on as the shinigami began to explain his proposition.

"Due to some recent and non-recent events, all of these students are currently behind all of the others in the collecting of Kishin eggs department. Now due to that, I find that it is necessary for them to conduct a remedial lesson to improve their skills."

But even after that done and said, Ichigo still had one thing to ask, "And this relates to me…how?"

Shinigami-sama clapped his hands together at that question; as if that was the one he had been waiting for. "Ah, then let me explain…"

**A few minutes later.**

It took a few minutes, but soon enough Ichigo was greeted with the presence of not only the ninja duo, BlackStar and Tsubaki, but Soul and Maka soon entered the headmaster's office as well. This of course lead to a sight that was painful for Ichigo to watch, BlackStar tried to sneak up on the soul eating duo with Tsubaki…but he of course talked too much and thus they noticed him.

_'Good lord…Soifon would be furious at the idea of someone like that trying to be stealthy…'_

After being asked to be stay in the background, Ichigo waited as the group of meisters and weapons approached the giant mirror. Soon enough Maka spelled death's number in the mirror's surface, getting a ringing sound in return before finally the shinigami appeared as well.

"Hello everyone! Thanks for coming! How's it going?"

"Hello sir, Scythe Meister Maka and Soul reporting in!" Maka smiled at the god of death, with Soul nodding as well.

"Yeah, and Dark Arm Meister BlackStar too," BlackStar grunted as his partner addressed the shinigami more respectively, "And Tsubaki as well sir."

"So what's this about?" Soul finally said, already bored.

"Right."Shinigami-sama's voice got a little more serious at this point, "Well, I've got a little assignment for all of you to take on."

"An assignment?" The four of them said at the same time, utterly confused.

"Some extra lessons."Shinigami-sama deadpanned, getting a look of utter horror from the young scythe mister.

"Huh? Extra lessons? You mean those extra lessons that stupid people get?"

"Well screw that, I'm gona be a death scythe, I'm way too cool for extra lessons." Soul scowled, annoyed with the idea of extra lessons.

The shinigami sighed with the weapon's response, "Don't you all remember the duties you all have as meister's of the DWMA?" Maka immediately looked serious at such a question.

"Yes, our duty as Meisters is to feed our weapons ninety-nine Kishin eggs and one witches soul, we collect evil souls in order to keep the world at peace. We work to create a Death scythe, the weapon of the Shinigami himself." Maka told the headmaster with such fluently that it seemed like she had memorized the entire speech.

"Ah yes, but by my count all of you have collected only a total of…zero."

"What!" Maka, Soul, and Tsubaki spoke with such shock and disappointment in their voices. They were practically white as sheets at the concept of being that far behind. But there was one member of their group that didn't seem to take this grave situation seriously.

"Hahahahaha…" BlackStar chuckled at the idea of someone as awesome as himself being that far behind. It was impossible!

Still standing in the background of the death room, Ichigo slapped himself in the head in annoyance. You'd think that this kid would have enough common sense to take something like this seriously…but that goofball was laughing at it and in the presence of the lord of death himself too.

"Three…two…one…" Ichigo counted off, waiting for the obvious to happen.

"…hahahaha-**BONK!-**...ouch. "

BlackStar's laughter was cut off as a large chop nearly split his head in two. Shinigami-sama didn't find BlackStar's reaction too humorous.

"This is not something to laugh about you nut! Now then…" Shinigami-sama called the others out of their depression, leaving BlackStar to lay on the ground in pain, "Are all of you ready for your extra lessons? I'm sure you've all heard the rumors about Sid, who had been teaching here until recently."

"Sid? I was right, it wasn't just a story." Soul said a little surprised.

"Oh yeah, for a Zombie I thought he was a really good teacher." Maka added, still a little depressed about the earlier statement.

"True, while he was alive Sid was a great teacher." Shinigami-sama went on to explain the sudden change Sid went through after he became a teacher. How the formerly grand teacher became unafraid of the concept of death, and wanted to teach others such a gift…even at the cost of their lives. He also mentioned that the identity of the man who did such a thing to Sid was still a mystery, but that didn't seem too important at the time. BlackStar (who recovered from his earlier encounter with a painful chop to the head) replied to all of this with his normal 'sure of himself' attitude.

"Now not to put too much pressure on you lot but be warned, if you fail this extra lesson, you all shall be expelled from the academy."

"WHAT? You're going to kick us out?"

**Sometime Later, Hook Cemetery:**

It was very late when the group arrived. Shinigami-sama had informed them of a frequent pattern of sightings, where he believes the undead teacher rests during the night. So with this information, the duos of Meisters, Weapons and a single shinigami went in search of their former teacher. But so far, there is was a major no show.

"Agh! Where is he!" Soul screamed, although no-one seemed to care.

Ichigo himself however was leaning against a nearby tree. His thoughts were currently focused on the undead zombie that was formerly Sid. The two of them may not have been close, but Sid still was someone Ichigo was both shocked and saddened to hear about his passing. But imagine his shock to hear that Sid had been brought back as a zombie; it was something he thought impossible.

'_Sounds like something out of a crummy B-horror movie…'_ Those were his exact thoughts when he first heard about it.

"Come out you stupid Zombie!"

But this was no horror movie, and there was in fact a 'Zombie' on the loose. And despite how weird it sounded, it needed to be dealt with. But what confused Ichigo was how on earth someone had done something like this. To Ichigo's knowledge when someone's chain of fate had been broken, they were gone. How on earth did someone bring a dead man back to life? Especially when the dead person in question had a hole through his forehead, didn't zombies need to have their brain intact to come back from the dead? It made no sense!

_"King, seriously? After all the crap we've been through…your questioning this?"_

'…_good point…'_

Letting this subject drop, Ichigo looked around the empty graveyard to see what the others were currently up to. He wasn't that surprised to see Soul still screaming at nothing. BlackStar was off doing…something; Ichigo really didn't want to think about whatever he was doing. Tsubaki was being the more…well normal one of the bunch; she was trying to make sure her meister didn't do anything too…stupid. And Maka? Well…she was lying at the base of a tree, still completely depressed about the idea of getting kicked out of the academy.

So all in all, it was all going nearly as Ichigo had expected it to go.

"Hey Soul! I've got an idea!" BlackStar suddenly exclaimed, drawing the shinigami's attention.

Looking over to the duo, Ichigo noticed the two boys were standing next to a particular grave stone. A grave stone that had once nearly crushed Ichigo into a hole into the ground, now that is something you do not forget.

"Seeing how the douche hasn't shown up yet, let's take a piss on Sid's grave!"

Ichigo had to repress the urge to slap himself in the face, there is no way that anyone would seriously agree to something like tha…

"Yeah! And let's take a dump on it too!"

_"…wow…just wow…I have absolutely nothing to add to this situation."_ Ichigo's hollow awkwardly said. But Ichigo himself on the other hand had a much more fierce response to this.

"Stop disrespecting the Dead!" Ichigo roared at them, bashing his fists against the two boy's heads.

If these any of these guys knew Ichigo half as well as his classmates back in Karakura town did, then they would obviously know that Ichigo really hated when people did unsavory things to the departed. But unfortunately for Soul and BlackStar, they had no idea…and thus lead to their current situation of getting their heads smacked around by an annoyed shinigami.

Ignoring the trio's antics, Maka continued to mope. How could she allow this to happen? She was so certain that she would become a fantastic meister… What would her mother think of all of this?

A large blue hand burst from the ground below Maka and effortlessly picked her off the ground. Lifting her higher into the air the dirt at the base of the tree soon crumbled, revealing a rather gruesome figure. Standing before the group was the corpse of their former teacher, Sid Barret…although he did look a little different now. His skin had lost its normal color, replaced with a sickly cold blue. The eyes that were once filled with such a stern will (and in Ichigo's opinion sarcasm) were now nothing but white lifeless orbs that adorned his face. And what was most surprising…was the giant hole that was in the center of his forehead.

"Maka!" Soul called out in fear for his partner.

"Are you scared girl?" Sid grinned, a sharpened branch in his grip, "I think you are!"

Thrusting his weapon forward, the Zombie tried to impale the young girl. Lucky for her though, Maka's weapon had already launched to his meister's aid. Having transformed in midair, Soul's scythe form slammed in the ground, forcing Sid to release the young girl in order to dodge the sharp weapon.

"Wow Sid…and I never thought you could get any uglier…." Ichigo muttered.

The zombie known as Sid looked at the group of students with a vague emotionless expression, "Soul, Maka, BlackStar, Tsubaki…and Ichigo…good morning…"

_"It's night, dumbass!"_ Ichigo's hollow called out, too bad no one but Ichigo could hear him.

"…good afternoon, and good night." The Zombie continued, picking up his tombstone before draping it under his arm. "I always try to remember my manners. That is the kind of man I was."

**Meanwhile, in the Death Room.**

"And so it begins."

Inside Shinigami-sama's personal office, Lord Death himself was personally watching the carnage through his mirror. But he was not alone in this.

Sitting behind the headmaster was a young boy. Dressed in a dark black suit with his arms crossed, the boy crossed began watching the students battle their undead teacher with interest. This was Death's only son, Death the Kid, who was visiting his father after rather unsuccessful mission to Egypt. Turns out…Kid completely demolished a pyramid while he was defeating an evil mummy. He blamed it the creature's insane ugliness, Patty and Liz (his weapon partners) on the other hand blamed it on his obsession with symmetry.

Still, the shinigami's attention wasn't on his resent failure (he was actually trying to forget that); his attention was currently focused on the situation brewing in the graveyard, which seemed to be picking up steam already.

**Back at Hook Cemetery.**

"Why?" Maka asked, taking up her weapon, "Why are you doing this?"

"Ding Dong, Dong Ding…" Sid chanted like a class bell, "Being a zombie is so much fun, there are so many things I can get away with now that death isn't looming over my head."

The Zombie now found himself surrounded by his students. On one side was Maka and Soul, and on the other were the ninja duo, Tsubaki (who had transformed moments ago) and BlackStar. And standing in front of him was Ichigo, staring down into the Zombies lifeless eyes.

"Class is in session, I was always a man who liked to start class with a bell."

BlackStar cracked his neck at the zombie's words, "This'll be fun, I get to teach you a lesson now teacher. And since its coming from me, you know it's going to be a big one!"

"_We don't want to be expelled, so we'll take your extra lesson."_ Soul's voice echoed from his scythe form, _"But I've got to say, I don't know what we'll learn from a decaying pile of flesh such as yourself."_

Sid actually chuckled at that remark, "If you become a zombie, death no longer looms over you…you become free of the fear that plagues your life!"

"That's wrong and you know it, you were never the type of man to say that!" Maka growled at the zombie, but her words seem to fall on deaf (or dead) ears.

"You'll understand when you're DEAD!"

Sid leaped into the air and swung his tombstone back, prepared to smash the girl with all of his might. But before he could do so, the zombie was stopped in his tracks as a silver chain wrapped itself around the stone surface. Looking over his shoulder, Sid noticed BlackStar standing there with a confident smirk on his face.

"There is no need to thank me for the lesson, it's on the house." BlackStar told the zombie, holding the chain back with a noticeably large amount of effort.

But the Zombie didn't seem to care, "I was always the type of man…"

"…to not hold back!" With a strong thrust, the Zombie easily pulled BlackStar off his feet, sending him flying forward as he continued his attack on the Scythe meister. Luckily for Maka she was able to block the strike with the handle of her scythe, although its force did end up sending her flying backwards as well.

Noticing the two students land on their feet Sid frowned, "You guys should give up, there is no way a couple of one-star Meisters can handle someone like me."

"If they can't, then maybe I'll be more of a challenge."

Before Sid could react, a blue light overcame Ichigo as he slammed his combat badge against his chest. With his human body vanishing, Ichigo charged at the Zombie, Zangetsu in hand. Sparks exploded as the cold steel of the Zanpakuto collided with the hard stone of Sid's tombstone. The two struggled back in forth for a few moments before a certain blue haired loudmouth stuck a kick to the side of Sid's head.

Swinging his tombstone, Sid launched the ninja high up into the air before jumping off after him. The other three students could only watch in horror as the zombie lifted the tombstone over his head and brought it down on the teens head.

"The Living **_End!_**"

Falling to the ground in the blink of an eye, the sky was lit up with a large cross shaped explosion. Ichigo whined at the sight of this, having nearly been on the receiving end of this attack once before. Maka on the other hand called out to her friend in shock, but only got the sound of footsteps in return. Out of the smoke was Sid, walking casually out of the wake of his attack.

"Ding Dong, Dong Ding. It looks like class is..." Sid chuckled as he slipped back into a fighting stance.

"Will you shut Up!"

Launching forward, Ichigo dragged his sword across the ground in a rage. With his sword glowing with a blue reiatsu, Ichigo unleashed a large backlash wave at the zombie. Unfortunately for the shinigami, the zombie quickly sidestepped the attack as it flew past him (and luckily it missed the spot where BlackStar had landed as well).

"Much too eager, was that your anger that fueled that or was it fear?" Sid asked the shinigami, who looked quite annoyed with the entire situation.

"Fear? You think I am scared of you? Don't make me laugh."

Sid raised a non-existing eye-brow at that, "Really? You facing an undead three star meister and yet you claim that you're not scared? Not even the slightest?"

"Sid, I have seen creatures much more terrifying then you...personally you look like something from a Saturday morning cartoon now."

Indeed, Ichigo really did feel like this was a joke. Not in terms of a challenge or anything like that, but the concept of Sid's words. The fear of death? With everything Ichigo had ever been involved in, did he look like he feared death? Battles with hollows, shinigami (especially Kenpachi Zaraki of the 11th division), and various arrancars, Ichigo had never let the concept of death weaken his resolve. There was only one thing that could have done that, and Ichigo had never let that happen…at least not until…

"Man…I have a headache." The sound of BlackStar's voice finally emerged from the crater he had been slammed into, a fairly large steam of blood streaming from his face.

_"Damn...I was hoping he was dead…"_

Tossing both ends of his chained weapon towards the walking corpse, Sid was surprised to see the weapon fly past him. But with this distraction, BlackStar rushed towards his former teacher and landed a strong kick to the zombie's midsection. Coughing up some blood, Sid was knocked into the air a considerable height while BlackStar recovered his weapon. Giving a quick command to his partner, the young ninja's weapon quickly transformed herself into a giant shuriken. Tossing it at the zombie, BlackStar hoped to slice the walking corpse in two…to bad that didn't happen.

As the spinning weapon neared the corpse, Sid recovered his senses and easily kicked away the shuriken. Looking towards the ground, Sid noticed he was right above a distracted Maka and Soul. Smirking, the corpse lifted his massive tombstone into the air above him before launching at an unnatural speed towards the young pair.

"The Living **_End!_**"

His eyes widening at the sudden attack, Ichigo tried desperately to blow Sid out of the sky before he could make contact. But unfortunately his attack was far too slow and as a result; Ichigo had to watch in horror as the destructive explosion erupted throughout the graveyard.

"Maka!"Ichigo called out in horror, he highly doubted that she could easily shake off such as an attack as BlackStar had.

In the smoke resulting from the attack Sid was smirking. Unlike Ichigo, who was able to block such an attack and BlackStar, who was able to shake off the massive impact, the zombie knew Maka would be down for the count now.

But as the smoke cleared, Sid was utterly shocked at what he saw.

Using an outstanding amount of agility, Maka had avoided the stone weapon as it slammed into the ground. And to add even more to this unbelievable situation, Maka then swung both of her legs forward and smashed her foot into the zombie's face. With a outstanding amount of leg strength, Maka somehow slammed the corpse into the ground, the ground even cracking under the impact. And to add insult to injury, Maka jumped off her deceased teacher's head before landing on the ground a nice distance away.

"Fear drives us forward; it drives us to overcome nearly anything that stands in our way." Maka tightly gripped her weapon, "That is something you have obviously forgotten."

With a mighty roar, the two partners started to resonate their souls. Energy even started to crackle around them as their bond became even stronger. Swinging her weapon behind her back, Maka prepared to unleash her most powerful technique. As their resonance started to reach its peak, the blade of Soul's scythe form started to glow a very light blue before shifting and changing. Before everyone's eyes the blade suddenly transformed into a large crescent moon shape, practically glowing in power.

"The Legendary technique of the Scythe Meister, **Witch Hunter!**"

But as Maka went to unleash her attack…her foot slipped and she accidentally sent the destructive move…in the wrong direction. Luckily diving out of the way, BlackStar was able to escape the massive ark of energy…but as for Ichigo…

"Aw Shit..."

…it slammed into him with all of its worth. Luckily Ichigo was able to put up Zangetsu's massive blade before it struck, using the over sized Zanpakuto as a sort of shield. But never the less this still knocked Ichigo to the clear other side of the graveyard as a result.

But back with the others, they were all still staring at the destruction the attack had left in its wake…or they were until BlackStar turned to Maka and Soul.

"What the hell was that? Were you trying to kill us?" He screamed at the two of them.

Maka stared at the weapon in her hand with rage, "Soul! Look what you did!"

"_Me? How the hell do you think this is my fault?"_ The scythe screamed back, _"Yelling at me for nothing! Go die!"_

"What? How can you say that! You die!" Maka retorted, leading to Soul calling her a baby.

This went on for a few more minutes with Sid all the while staring in shock at what he had just seen. These were students he had taught himself and yet Sid was never expected that duo to unleash such an attack. He was also slightly worried about Ichigo, but he figured the kid could use a nice bump to the head.

"I didn't want to use some special move!" Maka screamed as she charged the zombie, "I wanted to do this the easy way!"

But as Maka went up to slice the zombie in two, Sid suddenly disappeared back into the earth via another hole in the ground.

"What?" Maka muttered, "He's gone."

"_No, he just went back underground."_ Soul replied.

"Again, he went back under there?" Maka asked, still confused. But before she could get another answer, Sid suddenly burst out of the ground behind them. With another pointed stick in his hand, the zombie was about the end the lives of these two students. But luckily for them at the last moment, BlackStar paired his block and responded with his own attack. But as luck would have it, Sid easily dodged the attack and once again retreated underground.

"_Dam it! He went underground again!"_ Groaned Soul, frustrated with all of this. BlackStar meanwhile looked very serious for once.

"_It's time BlackStar."_Tsubaki warned her meister, who nodded in return.

"Sid is using the first of the assassin's rules." BlackStar explained having a general idea of what is old teacher was up to.

"_Blend into the shadows...Hold your breath...And wait for your target to let down his guard."_

Lifting one of the bladed ends of Tsubaki's weapon form into the air, Black Star made a hand seal with his other free hand. Slowly the rest of Tsubaki's weapon form slowly surrounded both Maka and BlackStar. Then the chain started to spread out amongst the nearby tombstones.

"Only one man is going to die in the graveyard." BlackStar declared before focusing, "And it's not going to be me!"

Then without warning, the chains of BlackStar's weapon contracted into a star shape, leaving the four students standing in the center.

"Trap Star."

No one moved a muscle after that, the surrounding area became as quiet as a graveyard should be. But it wouldn't last. Moments later Sid once again burst out of the ground with a weapon in hand, but this was a mistake on his part.

"Trap Star activate!" BlackStar called out, tugging on his weapon.

With that sudden movement, the chains that were previously spread across the graveyard came to life. Compressing and shifting around the graveyard, the chains started to home in on BlackStar's target.

"I think it's time to send you back to the grave, you really smell." BlackStar smirked before tugging on the chain once more, completing his trap. But as the chains tightened around Sid…they seemed to have accidentally captured something else as well.

"What are you doing? Why the hell did you tie me up with this guy?"

It turns out that Maka had unfortunately been caught up in the trap and as a result got tied up along with Sid.

"Well you shouldn't have gotten in my way! Ha!" BlackStar chuckled before bursting out in laughter, he was so happy with himself now that he had successfully trapped him opponent…and then some.

It was actually at this very moment when Ichigo finally reappeared. It had turned out that Maka's Witch Hunter technique had a lot more power to it then Ichigo had thought. It actually had enough force to send the shinigami flying clearly out of the graveyard (while destroying a large portion of the fence in the process). Still, Ichigo was relatively unharmed from the attack and returned to the battle a few moments later…but this was not what he was expecting to see.

Still hearing Maka and Soul shouting at a laughing Black Star, Ichigo slowly rubbed his forehead in annoyance.

"Great…now I have a headache."

**Stein's laboratory, sometime later.**

After a noticeable amount of time (which was mostly spent untying Maka and stopping her from pounding BlackStar into the ground) the group eventually arrived at the location Sid had directed them to. It surprisingly wasn't that hard to get the information out of the corpse as the student's thought it would, Sid was actually strangely informative about the man who had returned him from the land of the dead. Apparently it was a strange scientist name, a strange man who lived somewhere in Death City.

So after untying Maka and tiring Sid back up, the group of students made their way to the good doctor's home. And what they found…was odd.

Standing before them was a very particular structure. Besides the dead plants that surrounded the house the structure looked like it was actually stitched together with some thread, like that old monster movie Frankenstein. The group even spotted a few mice scampering around…which actually turned out to be a bunch of mechanical windup toys. So…this place was very…strange.

"Is this the place?" Maka asked, staring at the strangely designed building in front of them. Soul just shrugged at the question, more annoyed then bothered with the strange building.

"Hopefully, I ready to get these extra lessons over and done with." Soul groaned before actually taking a look at their location, "Man, this guy even put zigzag stitches on his laboratory…"

Just then, one of the front doors of the building slowly creaked open by itself. The group turned their attention to the entrance of the building, a strange sound echoing through the halls of the house.

"Hey…something's coming out of there."

Everyone's attention imminently focused on the entrance. The sound was the type of noise a person would hear if the heard something rolling across the ground. Soon enough the noise started to get louder and louder as whatever was making it got closer to the entrance.

A man in a strange white coat (which had stitches covering it) that was sitting on a weirdly designed chair was speeding towards the front doors. But as the man was finally going to sped past the entrance, the wheels of the chair got stuck. With this sudden stop, the man and his chair fell forward onto the ground with a thud. This was not what everyone was expecting when they arrived…not at all.

"Agh, damn that stung." The man groaned as he sat upward. Standing back up, the man pulled the chair up with him and sat into back in it, It was then that the group noticed something, this man…had a massive screw in his head.

"**Does…that man have a screw imbedded in his head?"**Zangetsu muttered.

The hollow shrugged, _"Yep…puts the term 'Screw loose' to a whole new level doesn't it…"_

After a few minutes of twisting the screw in his head (I know that sounded odd, just roll with it), the man eagerly stood up from the chair and grabbed it. "Ok, I'm going to try that again." And with that the man walked back inside his home, leaving the group of students just standing there, in awe at what they had just seen.

"Um…shouldn't someone stop him?"

No one did a thing…hell, BlackStar and Tsubaki even wanted to figure out what the hell this guy was doing.

But after a few moments of waiting the group was greeting with a familiar sound of the man's chair making its way back down the hallway. Waiting patiently for the man to reappear, the group was surprised to see…the exact same thing happen again. No seriously, the same thing happened again…right down to the very space the man landed on.

"Wow, that was…anticlimactic." Ichigo muttered, everyone around him agreeing with that statement.

"Ugh, so did you kids want something?" The man muttered, not even bothering to sit up.

"Um…yea if you are Doctor Stein that is…" Soul grunted, getting a little frustrated at all of this.

Maka, who was the next to snap out of the awkwardness of the situation, quickly answered the man. "You the one who did this, you're the one who turned Sid into a Zombie!"

And to add to her act accusation, Ichigo (who had been carrying the walking corpse the entire time) dropped the tied up zombie to the ground with a thud. This of course led the newly identified Stein to stare at his handy work for a moment before looking back at the kids, "Oh that's it, and I guess that means you all are from the academy doesn't it?"

Maka nodded at his question and then went on to ask him his reasons for doing this, was it a grudge? Revenge? But the doctor merely shook his head at those reasons and waved his arm in a dismissing manor.

"Nah, I have a much simpler reason then than that." He said with a somewhat happy grin, "Experimentation and observation, that's all a true scientist really needs. All I wanted was a nice lab rat to run a few tests on, hell I'm even willing to use myself sometimes."

"_Oh god, it sounds like that crack job from the Soul Society, the one Ishida complained about so much…"_

This caused an eerie silence to fall between the two of them, with Maka staring into the cold eyes of the doctor. But after a few moments, the meister started to get a fairly odd feeling in the pit of her stomach.

But suddenly Stein started to chuckle out of nowhere, "Heh, it seems that your soul wavelengths are all that stable, although seeing how different they are it isn't that much of a surprise."

"I see one that's careless and arrogant, and perhaps a bit of a jackass." Stein continued, Soul meanwhile got a sudden feeling of annoyance, "The other seems earnest and strong, they seem to be in resonance but they aren't."

Maka briefly explained that Meisters had the ability to see a person's soul even when they were still alive, although only the best meister were said to actually be able to pull it off. But when Maka said that she herself could do it as well, Stein mentioned that her soul looked unsure of itself.

"Enough talk! No one wants to hear you talk, so for the sake of everyone's interest let's change the subject to something a little more interesting! Like Me!"

Turning their heads upward, the group noticed a blue haired teen standing at the top of Stein's house…how the hell he got up there with not one noticing was anyone's guess.

"When did he…?" Tsubaki wondered, generally confused on how the hell her partner got up there without anyone noticing. But all the while BlackStar just continued to do what he was best known for, being loud and obnoxious.

"Besides, who cares if you can see souls? The only one here that is worth looking at is mine!" BlackStar then leaped from the tall building and landed only a few feet from the seated doctor. But Stein just chuckled at the young ninja's statements, wondering how on earth someone could stand to be around him.

"Well, your soul is an interesting one. It seems so hyper and self-centered; it's a wonder who could even have the mindset to resonate with you." Stein told the boy, but what he got in return was not more talking, but a ninja jumping at him with his fist prepared.

"Will you just shut up!" BlackStar screamed before unleashing a kick onto the scientist. But to mostly everyone's surprise, Stein easily deflected the ninja's kick and even the one that followed. And to shock the group even more, when BlackStar backed off to prepare his next move he was ambushed by the doctor. Unleashing a sudden uppercut, Stein decked the boy in the jaw, knocking him off his feet.

Tsubaki called out to her injured partner, but by doing so she a accidentally attracted the scientist's attention.

Stein's eyes widened slightly as he gazed into her soul, "Ah that makes sense, you must be the wild one's partner. You are so calm and gentile despite your job, so willing to compromise those around you, it's no wonder that you are able to cooperate with his soul."

But as Stein finished his gaze finally rested on the local shinigami. He even developed a very disturbing grin, one that made even Ichigo cringe at.

"And then there is you, the oddball of the group…" Ichigo instantly had the urge to smack that sick grin off that nut's face. Calling him an oddball? Has he looked in the mirror lately?

"Your soul seems different from the others…it's hard to comprehend almost." Stein said while twisting the screw in his head, "It has the urge to protect everything around it but, it also seems hesitant…as if it failed once…"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed at those words…he didn't like where this was going.

"But that's not what's so strange about, there is something else." It was at this moment Stein took off his glasses, his cold eyes staring into Ichigo's brown ones.

"There is a rage…a dark presence in your soul…I wonder, what is it?" Stein asked Ichigo, the boy was done with all of this. Reaching for his blade, Ichigo grasped Zangetsu's hilt and pulled the blade off his back.

Maybe Ichigo should stitch that nut's mouth shut after he beats him into the dirt.

**The Death Room, Same Time.**

"Father…what did he mean by that?"

Shinigami-sama gave a side glance to his son, thankful that his mask hid nearly any expressions that would have been displayed on his face. Kid had always been curious (at least when he wasn't freaking out about something being symmetrical), but sometimes that was a little of an issue.

"We'll see...maybe…**'Bam!'**Oh! That had to hurt!"

**Now Back to the beat down….**

"Agh! My nose! You prick!" BlackStar whined before Stein backhanded him again, knocking the ninja on his ass once more. So far…their fight had gone…less than grand.

Surprisingly Stein was hard as hell to hit, even with Ichigo on the psycho's trail he managed to dodge nearly everything Ichigo, Maka, and BlackStar threw at him. How the hell someone managed to dodge so many attacks while sitting on a wheeled chair is…just strange. But on the plus side, no one had actually been harmed as of yet…expect BlackStar…who may have bloody nose after that last slug to his face.

But all in all things weren't going too bad…at least until that nut started to wondering about Maka's name.

"Scythe Meister Maka…now where have I heard that before…" Stein wondered aloud before slipping out of the way of Ichigo's sword, narrowly escaping getting sliced in half.

"Shut! Up! And! **Fight!**"Ichigo roared with every swing, he was really getting sick of this guy! He was worse than Urahara's cheeky attitude! At least he tried to be funny, this guys was just annoying!

"Hm…Ah! That's it! Your mother was a Meister and you're Spirit's little girl!" Stein said, finally connecting the dots. Maka though just looked at the weird doctor with a confused expression.

"Spirit?" Soul asked, unfamiliar with that name. Maka explained to her partner that Spirit was the name her father had gone by before he took to calling himself Death Scythe due to his position as Shinigami-sama's personal weapon.

"But what I want to know is how you know that, barley any people know that." Maka asked Stein, who just shrugged.

"Ah, I remember him even now; he looked so peaceful in his sleep."

"…what the hell are you talking about?..." Ichigo asked, not wanting to go any farther in this line of conversation.

"…I must say, he was a very thick sleeper, I was surprised at how much I could do to him without waking him up."

"…dude…please stop talking…" BlackStar shuttered.

"Ah, but you are indeed spirit's little daughter…and the daughter of the woman that ended my greatest experiment." Stein finished his little rant with a eerie gleam coming off his glasses, "Although I wonder…what type of subject you'd make."

"I'd like to see you try." Soul said defiantly, but Stein just grinned. Just then Stein launched himself at the duo with his palm extended. The pair prepared to block the strike and they did. But when the two forces collided, Stein mealy twisted his hand and suddenly a spark of yellow energy surged into Soul, knocking the scythe and his partner backwards.

"What the hell…was that?" Soul muttered,

"Now then." Stein calmly said as he finally stood up from his chair, pushing the seat to the side. "How should I begin thus experiment?"

Maka, who had been spooked by the surprising counter, imminently charged the doctor despite Soul warning her not to. But as she swung her partner at the man, Stein just calmly lifted his hand and once again deflected the attack with another burst of energy. The force of the counter easily knocked the girl off her feet again but as she fell to the ground, Stein reached out for her. Grabbing her by one of her pigtails, the doctor lifted Maka back on her feet in a rather painful manor. He then processed to remove Maka's overcoat and lift up her shirt to a certain degree.

Reaching into his coat pocket, Stein pulled out a small black marker. With a sickly grin, the doctor actually started to draw on the young girl's skin, like a surgeon would when preparing for an operation.

"Now, where should I make the first insertion?" Stein asked the girl. Whimpering in response, Maka couldn't even look the madman in the eyes to answer. But luckily someone else decided to answer him for her.

"You're going to need a new pair of glasses when I'm done with you!" BlackStar shouted as he charged the insane doctor. "How can you have already forgotten that I'm here!"

But Stein just glanced at the boy, "Easily."

That just enraged the boy even more so. Leaping into the air towards the man, BlackStar lifted his hands up in preparation of his signature attack. "Let's see if you can forget me so easily after I beat you down with my Soul wavelength!"

"What?" Stein muttered, but by then it was too late.

Slamming his fists into the doctor's back, BlackStar channeled his soul wavelength into a surprisingly explosive attack. **"**Certain Kill**: BlackStar Big Wave!"**

Stein was in shock as the boy channeled his soul's energy throughout his body. In his shock he even released Maka from the grip he had on her. Creating a large shock-wave from the attack, the two warriors stood there in silence, although by the look on BlackStar's face he thought that he had come out victorious.

But that grin soon died. Stepping back from the spot where he unleashed his attack, BlackStar noticed that something wasn't right. Anyone else would have collapsed in pain if struck with such a blow, hell they would have at least have dropped to a knee. But with Stein there was nothing, he didn't even twitch.

"Ah, so a surprise from the wild boy." Stein calmly said, cracking his back slightly.

"You…you negated my soul attack…" BlackStar muttered, never encountering something like this before in his entire life at the academy.

"It was fairly easy actually. Remember when I looked at your soul when you all first arrived here?" BlackStar nodded at the question, "It was at that time that I memorized you soul wavelength. The moment you attacked me I instantly matched my soul wavelength to yours and since soul wavelengths that are the same cancel each other out, you your attack was basically worthless."

**The Death Room, Same Time.**

"A human can do that?" Death the Kid asked, from which his father nodded in conformation.

"It's only possible if the human's soul is very flexible." Shinigami-sama explained, "It's one of the reasons why Stein is so hard to defeat in battle."

**Back to the Beat down…again.**

"Now that was an interesting experiment….but now it's my turn."

It was less than a second, but within the blink of an eye Stein was upon the young ninja. With a sickening grin, the doctor quickly lifted his hand to the side of BlackStar's head and unleashed his own spirit based attack. In a flash BlackStar was engulfed in an electric storm of power, turning the boy into a lightning rod as Stein's soul wavelength poured through him. It was painful to watch for everyone, especially Tsubaki. To see her partner in such agony was almost unbearable. Luckily it didn't last too much longer.

It was a very sudden attack, but it did the trick. With a strong kick to his face, Stein was knocked off his feet by Ichigo, who was tired of this senseless display of pain. Appearing next to Stein, Ichigo delivered a kick that knocked the demented scientist to the side and even freed BlackStar from that sadistic attack.

Swinging Zangetsu backwards, Ichigo released a nameless Getsuga upon the mad doctor. Stein, who was slightly taken back by the attack quickly dodged out of the way, leaving his hone to take the blunt damage of the spiritual arc of energy. Dashing forward, Stein made grab for Ichigo's sword. Placing his hands on both sides of the steel blade, Stein unleashed another burst of his soul's energy into the sword as if a conductor. Pain erupted as the energy poured into Ichigo. But as Ichigo screamed out in pain, someone else screamed as well…but not in pain, but in anger.

"**_ENOUGH! Ichigo, End This Now!"_**

But moments of this begin; it was cut off as a sudden shock-wave of blue spiritual energy exploded from Zangetsu, shocking everyone around them. This shock-wave loosened Stein's grip on the sword and even tossed him away, slamming his back against the outer wall of his own house.

"This blade is a part of me, a part of my soul," Sneering at the man, Ichigo pointed the blade right at Stein's forehead, "Using him to attack me in such a way with your Soul wavelength… really wasn't the best idea."

Oh indeed it wasn't. Zangetsu was pissed; there is no other way to describe it. Nearly every Zanpakuto had a good relationship with their shinigami (even if they started off rather rocky) and only wanted to help them on whatever journey they were on. Now being merely spirits residing inside the shinigami's inner world, a Zanpakuto could never harm their shinigami…but this case was special. Due to the spiritual connection the materialized form of Zangetsu had to Ichigo, the pain of Stein's soul based attack was MUCH more painful compared to the version BlackStar got.

Now…how would you feel if you were used to hurt someone you cared about deeply on such a level? You get the picture.

So in retaliation, Ichigo not only grabbed Stein by the scruff of his shirt, but he also looked the man straight in the eyes and in the presence of everyone…unleashed a point blank Getsuga Tenshou. And while sure he didn't say its name (which reduced the power of the attack by a good load), the attack was still quite powerful.

The effects of the attack were imminently felt. The massive ark of energy sailed across the ground with a amazing speed, and within a few close seconds (more like mil-seconds) engulfed Stein before slamming into the building behind him.

Walking out of the smoke was Stein, looking not too bad actually. Sure his coat was in pretty bad shape and his glasses were cracked, but other than that he was overall okay. How the hell did that work?

"Well...I wasn't expecting that at all, I even had to dodge that one…this is going involve a lot more research on you strawberry boy." Stein mentioned while lighting another cigarette, leaving Ichigo with nothing but a twitching eye to reflect on his...clear rage towards this man.

But unlike the annoyed reaction Ichigo got out of Stein's unscarred survival, Maka had a slightly different reaction.

"What's the matter with you Maka? Get up!" Soul told his meister, shaking her in hope of snapping her out of whatever bunk she was in.

Maka was just sitting there on the ground, her hair covering her eyes as she started at the dirt. Ever since Stein's deflecting of her attack, Maka had been utterly shocked at the power this man processed. It was also the first time she was able to get a good look at this soul, it was huge! It was inhumanly powerful it even seemed bigger than Ichigo's! After seeing all of that it all just seemed…hopeless.

"Shut up!" Maka replied, slapping Soul's hand away, "You wouldn't be acting like that if you could see his soul like I can!"

Soul scowled at those words, "Bullshit! Even if I could that wouldn't matter at all! All you saw was one man's soul, not what it your future!" Soul continued while shaking Maka once again, "You're supposed to turn me into the most powerful Death Scythe of all time! You don't want that worthless father to outshine us do you!"

That struck a chord in Maka, but she wasn't sure if it was enough. Sure she wanted to surpass her father utterly, to prove her worth in comparison to her mother…but could this insane nut actually be beaten? But Maka's thoughts were cut off suddenly as she felt something touch her head. Looking up, the young girl spotted Ichigo standing behind her, lightly patting her head with Zangetsu to get her attention.

"Are you two finished? Look." Ichigo then pointed at Stein, who was standing in front of them with a new cigarette in his mouth. "He's been waiting for the two of you to finish so long that he even had time to start _another_ new cig. Can the two of you hurry up and kick his ass…before I do it myself?"

Finally with a nod, Maka stood up from the ground and stared back at the man in front of her.

"I'm sorry about that, I'm better now." Maka calmly told her partner, never taking her eyes off Stein.

Soul chuckled at that, "No problem." And with that, Soul transformed back into his weapon form and flew into his meister's hand. Shifting into a fighting stance, Maka and Soul quickly initiated their soul resonance.

"You're putting all of your strength into one attack? Isn't that a little risky?" Stein called to the duo, just baiting them to come at him with everything they had. It was just so exciting! "Come on! Lest see just what your souls can handle!"

"We'll see!"Maka screamed as their resonance morphed Soul's weapon form, "The Legendary technique of the Scythe Meister, **Witch Hunter!**"

Glowing with the same raging power that was summoned earlier that night, Maka and Soul charged the scientist in a rage, dragging the blade across the ground before unleashing it upon their enemy. But Stein was an opponent they could have seen coming no matter how much they prepared for this. For when the blade approached the man's body, he caught it between the palms of his hands.

"You can control such a power technique at such a young age…" Stein told the two of them, his glasses slightly cracking even more after barely surviving Ichigo's own attack.

"But…I'm afraid your skills are just too rough!"

And at that moment…it was over. With a single twitch of his fingers, Stein shattered the almighty technique in the palm of his hands. Soul and Maka were sent flying backwards in a violent retaliation, with Maka hitting the ground in a rather painful impact. Laying there for a few moments, Maka couldn't help but let the pain nearly consume her as the sounds of footsteps approached her.

Kneeling down in front of her, Stein couldn't help but be amazed, "You managed to stay awake after that, now that's something…"But as the doctor reached out for the girl something stopped him.

Suddenly a blue light suddenly covered Maka before reforming as Soul, who looked undeniably defensive of the girl, "Back away! I won't let hurt my meister!"

But that only got a chuckle out of the doctor; "Okay then, I'll start with you." Reaching out for the boy now a sudden shadow now fell over Stein. Glancing backwards, Stein noticed Ichigo standing right over him, his Zanpakuto prepared to strike if he tried anything even a tiny bit threatening. But what everyone saw next was…not what anyone expected.

"You've earned a passing grade, good job."

Silence, there was only silence. No shouts of joy, no sighs of relief, there was only silence...for a few moments at least.

"Seriously?"Ichigo and Maka muttered.

"Yep!" Stein cheerily announced before turning to gaze at his home (which had a huge hole in it), "Although, I wish you didn't have to bust up my house too much, could have broken something important."

_'Bust up your house...break something important...I'll bust your face you screw headed sociopath!' _Ichigo mentally shouted, the urge to just ripe this guy to pieces was almost overwhelming. But he had to remember the entire reason he was there in the first place...and the promise he made to the old shinigami back at the academy.

**Earlier that day: The Death Room.**

"So...you want me to...babysit them?"

Shinigami-sama slightly shifted in place, not too fond of the word's Ichigo had chosen when concerning the mission he had for the boy. "Well, I wouldn't put it that was exactly..."

"But that's it right? You want me to watch over Soul, Maka, Tsubaki, and BlackStar while they complete this 'extra lesson' for you. Am I right?" Ichigo used the term 'extra lesson' very loosely. After getting all of this explained to him, it all sounded closer to a punishment then a chance for extra credit in school.

"Well...pretty much." The shinigami shrugged, "It's not that I don't believe in these kids, but I want to make sure they are safe. The man they are going to be facing is well_...-what's the word I'm looking for?-_...uneven, he may go a little overboard on them."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at that, "Is he really that bad?"

"Oh Ichigo...you have no idea. Stein likes to take the concept of mind games to a whole new level, when you combine that with his fighting abilities...things can get a little nuts."

Shinigami-sama let out a soft sigh and put one of his hands on Ichigo's shoulders, looking the boy straight in the eyes. "Just...try not to kill him that much. I'd rather not have my best Meister kick the bucket already."

But Ichigo assured the death dog that he wouldn't hurt Stein…that much. Still, it was a promise given in trust and Ichigo was going to keep it. Besides, how hard could it be…right?

**Present Time**

Worst promise…Ever!

In a nut shell…that's what Ichigo was currently thinking when concerning his promise to the headmaster of the DWMA. If he had known that Stein seemed like a worse version of Urahara with a giant screw in his head…well he wouldn't have bothered with showing up.

Still…at least it was over.

Stein openly explained what had indeed happened since most of the group was utterly confused (that and Tsubaki was still trying to wake up her meister). He explained that the entire situation involving Sid and himself was actually set up by Lord Death himself; all of it was a ploy to test the skills of the young duos. With BlackStar awakening from his pain induced slumber (which turned out wasn't as bad as everyone expected), the group of kids soon departed the weird scientist's house after rejecting his offer to have them spend the night due to how late it was.

"See you later Kurosaki-san, I'm very excited that we'll be working together now!" Stein called out to the retreating figure, his voice sending chills up the vizard's spine. But luckily there was something else that could take his mind off that for a little while.

"Oh Sid…" Sid's eyes widened, having just recently untied himself while everyone else was distracted with the evening's events. He did not like Ichigo's tone…

"I may not be allowed to punch his face in…but you on the other hand…"Ichigo gleefully approached the undead corpse, cracking his knuckles the entire time. Oh, he was going to enjoy this...

Oh it was a good thing Sid was a zombie…the amount of broken bones he had the next morning would have taken few weeks to heal.

**The Next day: The Crescent Moon Classroom.**

It had been a rough start for the group the next day, with everyone having their own little issues to deal with. BlackStar, of course, was a bit sore due to the beating Stien gave him, sure it wasn't anything too bad but it still hurt like hell. Maka had less physical and more mental issues at the moment then BlackStar did. Learning that everything they had gone through during the previous night was a little shocking to say the least and though she was over most of the strange things Stein spoke of that night (even the bits about her dad), Maka had a bit of trouble clearing her head of all that creepy stuff.

Soul and Tsubaki didn't really have that much trouble awaking that morning, although they had to deal with their Meister's foul moods unfortunately.

And Ichigo? Well if anything he was just frustrated more than anything. The idea of Stein (who seemed like a much more…twisted version of old Hat and Clogs) was kind of disturbing. If Urahara's style was crazy enough, Ichigo didn't even want to consider the things Stein was capable of.

Still even though he doubted it would last, Ichigo pushed the thoughts of what Stein could possibly do to him (although he couldn't deny that he was glad Blair was nearly always near while he slept, made the ideas of what that madman would do to him in his sleep less…aggravating) aside and continued on his morning routine.

This routine was something Ichigo picked up during his first few days attending the academy. And while it was slightly altered with the brief presence of Yoruichi, it was something Ichigo slightly enjoyed as it reminded him of his mornings attending school back in karakura town. Blair waking him up in her own 'particular' way reminded him a lot of his father's old methods, although her way was much more…well it was much more her style anyway.

Still, it was…a nice pleasant comfort Ichigo could enjoy.

But still, despite how well the morning had started off, Ichigo still couldn't help but dread how school was going to turn out.

Arriving at the academy at his normal time (which was not that long before the bell), Ichigo wasn't that surprised to see the condition his friends were in after the tiring night they all just had.

Still at least everyone was ok; things could have been a lot worse. But still there was one issue that still had to be dealt with currently, and that is the issue of who the hell the substitute teacher was going to be. Maka dreaded the idea of her father subbing the class again and Ichigo really doubted Sid was going to be back so soon after the thrashing he gave the corpse last night.

_"Oh man, that was awesome kingy! I bet it took that corpse an hour to find his arm after you ripped it off and tossed it!"_Ichigo's hollow really enjoyed Ichigo's 'treatment' of Sid yesterday, it's not every day you get to see a vizard beat the hell out of a zombie (although things like that were getting a little more common around here).

But it was at this very moment that a familiar sound was heard, a sound Ichigo really wished he could have went a little longer without having to hear again. But it seems the hands of fate were feeling a little douchy today...because soon enough the sound of a few wheels spinning across the floor just got even worse before being suddenly silenced. And it was at this silence that the children were greeted with a familiar sight of a man in a white lab coat sliding across the ground while still sitting in a small chair. A man with a fairly large screw **in his head**.

"Oh God no…" Ichigo groaned as he covered his eyes, not wanting to view the man he knew was sitting right in front of them.

"Good morning Class, I'm Doctor Stein and I'm going to be your new teacher from this day forward," Stein told the entire class, getting groans of despair from a familiar group of four while doing so, "Now that introductions are out of the way, I'll be starting class with dissecting frogs, won't that be fun?"

Stein really needed to learn that not everyone had the same definition of fun that he did…

**A few Days Later: The Crescent Moon Classroom.**

Never before had Ichigo dreaded the idea of going to school.

For the last few days, the entire class had done nothing but dissections! Nothing else! There were frogs, rats…and even a full grown moose at one point. But that's it, that's all they were doing! IT was getting ridiculous! And today was no different…although it seemed much worse than normal. Because today…instead of the normal little animals (not counting that moose) Stein was planning to dissect a massive bird named a Tokiko, an endangered animal.

_'How the hell does he get permission to do this crap…'_Ichigo wondered.

But something was off today…someone was missing. Looking towards where Maka and Tsubaki were sitting, it finally came to Ichigo like a pile a bricks. BlackStar and Soul were gone…now it made sense that everything was so quiet.

And due to that new-found peacefulness, Ichigo was actually able to hear part of Tsubaki's and Maka's conversation, which he had suspected had to do with the absences of their partners. Apparently Soul and BlackStar had decided to join up today for some odd reason. Still, it bummed out Tsubaki and just annoyed Maka to a certain degree.

"Those two are just a bunch of morons, if they want to team up then why not let them?" Maka asked her friend with a bored expression, "Right Tsubaki?"

But Tsubaki didn't seem to agree, because with the mention of such a question she suddenly became hysterical and even grabbed Maka by her shoulders and shook her, "No, Maka! They can't!" Apparently Tsubaki did not like the idea of her meister abandoning her for Soul; she just refused to believe it.

Tsubaki continued this little display despite Maka's chagrin for a few moments before she was interrupted by Doctor Stein.

"I'm sure most of you are already aware of this, but today we are going to be having a new student attending," Stein told the rest of the class, who by their expressions weren't that informed about this new arrival as he thought they were, "Now I expect all of you to be on your best behavior!"

Everyone (including Ichigo) nodded at their teacher's request, understanding what a new student can go through if not given a good first impression. Ichigo just hoped that this kid wouldn't end up like the last time his class got a new student…although he doubted this would be any weirder then the time that Shinji joined his school for that brief time…right?

"Excellent! Now that that's out of the way we can get back to dissecting this little guy!" Stein said excitingly, the bird on the other hand…

This lead to a sort of disturbing display as the kids had to watch their teacher tie the poor bird onto a plank of wood, de-feather its midsection, and finally prepare his tools…the same tools he had been using ever since he took over Sid's teaching position. It was a sickening display as the doctor's tools slowly approached the bird's bare skin.

Luckily though, moments before the doctor's scalpel made contact with the creature's skin something interrupted him. It was a series of loud booming sounds that were coming from the main courtyard of the school. A few of the students looked away from the doctor's display (for more than one reason).

"Hey, BlackStar and Soul are fighting someone in the courtyard!" one of the students yelled, causing Stein to stop his attempted dissection with a sigh.

"Seriously? Right at the best part..." Stein muttered with annoyance, "Ichigo, can you go out there and shut them up?"

With the chance to get away from this sicko and his obsession with taking things apart, Ichigo gladly accepted, especially since Stein looked like he was about start taking apart the bird once again. But once again fate seemed to be in one of _those_ moods, because right before Ichigo opened the door to make his exit, Maka interrupted Stein again. "Doctor Stein, it's against school policy to allow any students to duel on school grounds with at least one member of the faculty supervising them!"

"Really? Fine! Then Maka, you and Tsubaki will accompany me and Ichigo to the courtyard while the rest of you study silently." Stein regrettably replied, setting down his tools (the bird sighing in relief as he did). With the three students following him, Stein and the others slowly made their way to the main entrance.

When they arrived, they were greeted by an interesting sight. In the middle of the courtyard were three people, on two sides were Soul and BlackStar, but in the middle was someone else. Standing in the center courtyard was a boy dressed in a black suit and holding a pistol in both hands.

"Oh my, they should have picked a different opponent…" Stein muttered at the sight of the boy.

Maka looked confused for a moment, "Isn't that the new kid you talked about earlier?"

"Yep, that's Death the Kid, Shinigami-sama's son." Stein explained, shocking the others, "It was his own choice to attend the academy. But be warned, his skills far surpass those of normal meisters."

_"Whoa…the old man has a kid?…that looks nothing like him?"_Ichigo's hollow muttered, entirely as confused as his king was at this point.

Indeed this was Death the Kid, and in his mind…this was not how he expected his first day at school was going to start.

Who else would have expected to arrive at their father's perfectly symmetrical school and immediately he was challenged into a battle by these two goofballs. While sure normally Kid would never have accepted such a rude challenge things changed when BlackStar in all his stupid glory broke one of the three spikes that made up the school's front entrance…ruining the amazing symmetry of the structure. Now that crossed the line and these fools were going to fear the wrath of an enraged shinigami!

But…he had expected…a little more out of these fools. They weren't even real partners; their soul wavelengths were completely different! There was no way these two were ever going to match up, and these two didn't seem to get that at all. It was actually kind of pathetic…

But still, these two fought on. Kid easily dodged BlackStar's kicks and various physical attacks with an amazing example of agility. His reaction time was also top notch, easily dodging an attack from Soul and responding to a bullet to the scythe arm Soul was currently wielding.

But back with the bystanders, Stein asked Maka to use her skills as a meister to view Kid's soul. She was amazed to see this one meister balancing the souls of two weapons at the same time, something nearly unheard of in the academy (there was actually only one other in the entire school that could do the same). But there was something deeper about their relationship, as if the two weapons admired the young shinigami.

"Those two weapons are named the Thompson sisters. They had a tough life before they met Kid, so it makes sense that they would be thankful to him." Stein explained, "The deal works for Kid as well, the sisters help calm his erratic personality."

Maka could help but continue to watch the trio easily hold off both BlackStar and Soul with a barrage of gunfire, "They make such a great team…those three."

"You can't even compare them to our two idiots out there."

Speaking of two idiots, BlackStar and Soul were tired of all this senseless gunfire, so they felt it was time to end this once and for all. So backing off from their single attempts, the duo created some distance from Kid.

"I think it's time we ended this, don't you agree Soul?" BlackStar asked his buddy, who nodded in return. "Yeah, it's about time."

"Time for what?" Kid asked, not amused.

"For your end." Soul smirked, before jumping into the air. "Transform!" With that Soul was transformed into his scythe form in a flash of blue energy. BlackStar of course lifted his arms to catch the weapon in a amazing display, even Kid and Patty were amazed at this performance.

_"That's so cool!"_ Patty shouted, but her sister wasn't that impressed. _"I don't think these two are taking this seriously."_

But as the massive scythe was about to land in BlackStar's hands…they goofed. BlackStar completely missed, causing Soul's blade to slice a huge chunk BlackStar's hair in half before falling to the ground. The two of them didn't even twitch for a few moments, standing there silently before BlackStar erupted in a painful scream and blood (from the huge cut on the top of his head).

_"Why did you catch me with your head!"_ Soul asked BlackStar, how was a little busy trying to close the wound on the top of his head, "Ah! I have no idea!"

_"Just do it right this time!" _

BlackStar then tried to pick up the large weapon, but he found it much too heavy to actually lift off the ground, not even an inch! "Agh, you're too heavy!" But that confused Soul, how could his scythe form be that heavy? Maka was able to spin him around like it was nothing. But it was at this moment that BlackStar tried to pump his Soul Wavelength into Soul in an attempt to actually lift the weapon. This of course back fired, sending an eruption of pain into Soul.

Soul imminently went off on BlackStar, screaming at the idiot for trying to hit him with his soul wavelength. This lead to a dramatic and sappy standoff between the two of them with Soul ending their partnership (which Tsubaki was glad to hear). But during all of this…Kid was starting to get impatient.

"Hey, can I shoot them now?" He asked, but Liz dined his request, _"No, this is starting to get good." _

But at the news that their short lived partnership was over, BlackStar then asked Soul if it would be ok if they could remain friends. Soul of course told him that was fine and the two ran at each other in an overly dramatic (and slow-mo, don't ask how the hell they did that) fashion and hugged each other…and then Kid shot them in the head.

"Oops…sorry…my fingers slipped."

That was it, Ichigo couldn't take any more, this was just too ridiculous. Pushing off the wall he had been leaning against, Ichigo walked past Stein and prepared to jump over the railing onto the ground below. "Anyone mind if I go save those idiots before they get their asses handed to them even further?"

Stein shrugged, "Nah, it's getting a little embarrassing anyway."

Thank to for that, Ichigo jumped over the school's railing and slowly walked over to where his classmates were sitting in thought. It seems that they were currently trying to come up with a new strategy to combat Kid's overwhelming skill in battle, and considering this was BlackStar we were talking about…that could take a while. Luckily this was when Ichigo showed up behind the two of them, surprising both Soul and BlackStar.

"Hey Ichi**-Bam-**" Soul started to talk to Ichigo, but he never had the chance to finish as the young vizard grabbed both the weapon and meister by the head and slammed them into each other, knocking the two goofs out flat. Kid just looked at the scene in confusion.

"Well that was unexpected." Kid muttered while Ichigo removed the bodies from the courtyard (he tossed them at Stein, which knocked him off his chair in the process). Ichigo shrugged before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his combat badge.

"Unexpected things tend to happen a lot around here; you tend to get used to it."

"Indeed." Kid replied as he watched Ichigo transform into his shinigami garb, "So…does this mean you're going to fight me too?"

Ichigo just gave him another shrug, "That's up to you. You can either calm down and we can get out of this without any trouble, or I can beat your ass into the ground and drag you to your dad's office. Either way it's your choice."

Kid then thought to himself for a few seconds, weighing his choices. He even took a good look at Ichigo's clothes, even putting that into consideration.

"Eh, I'd rather not get into a fight with you…especially with that disgusting weapon of ours."

Very bad choice of words.

"Excuse me?" Ichigo was unsure he heard Kid right, "Did you just call Zangetsu…disgusting?"

"Look at it! That thing is not even the least bit even with itself, that blade looks like an abomination with its extreme lack of symmetry!" Kid shouted at the vizard; explain his dislike with Ichigo's Zanpakuto. And in a way Kid was right, Zangetsu's massive cleaver/knife shape left absolutely no chance of symmetry. But symmetry? Seriously? This kid was going on a small rant on how unsymmetrical Zangetsu was.

"Kid…I think you have some serious problems…"

_"You have no idea buddy…"_ Liz muttered while her sister giggled, Ichigo hit the nail on the head on that one.

There was something that was bothering Ichigo though. With this guy's massive obsession with symmetry, why did he have three random lines on the left side of his hair?

"Yeah know…considering how you keep talking about symmetry…what the hell is up with your hair?"

But at the mention of his hair…Kid started to twitch uncontrollably…it was actually kind of unsettling. Liz and Patty actually were very nervous; they knew what could happen when Kid gets like this…it never ends well. Hell, the last time he got like this he destroyed an entire pyramid after he saw a very unsymmetrical Mummy. But this guy mentioned Kid's hair 'issue'…a subject that the young shinigami was very sensitive to.

Suddenly Kid's body became encased in a blue dome of energy, it actually looked like his Soul was manifesting itself around the boy. Black electricity suddenly started to converse around the boy's arms before three sharp black spikes erupted on each of Kid's arms. Kid's weapons also started to transform as well, the pistols slowly morphing from their small original form into large dangerous cannon-like weapons.

_'His spiritual pressure…its increasing?'_

It was at this moment that the dome surrounding Death the Kid vanished, dropping the boy back to the ground.

"Execution Mode acquired."

With Black energy slowly fluctuating between the spikes upon his arms, Kid pointed his twin cannons at Ichigo. The amount of dark energy that was being generated was even started to darken the around the boy, as if it was sucking the light out of the air itself.

"_Resonance factor stable. Nose: 0.3%"_ Liz announced to her meister.

Patty soon followed her sister's example, _"Black Needle Soul Wavelength charge Complete."_

The cannons continued to charge, spheres of pink energy started to expand in front he the cannon's barrels, the massive amount of destructive power that was about to be unleashed. Even a dark reflection of shinigami-sama's mask suddenly appeared above the destructive sources of energy, as if a warning of imminent death was approaching.

_"Four seconds to Feedback."_

Ichigo slowly lifted Zangetsu off his back, preparing for the worst that could come from this.

_"3…2…1"_

Stein slowly motioned both Tsubaki and Maka to step away from the railing, he didn't want them to get harmed in the incoming devastation.

_"Ready to fire!"_

**"Death Cannon!"**Death the Kid shouted, his two cannons unleashing a massive destructive blast of pure power. The force of this attack was even so powerful that it even pushed Kid back a few feet the moment he unleashed it. The two destructive blasts traveled across the courtyard in a flash, leaving Ichigo nearly no chance to act before the massive explosion consumed him. Leaving nothing but a large black cloud of smoke and a crater in its wake, Kid slowly returned to normal before dusting himself off.

_"Kid…don't you think that was a little harsh? He didn't even know about your whole issue with symmetry." _Liz asked her meister, but Kid just shrugged as he walked towards the crater his attack created.

"Eh, it can't be helped now." Kid explained as he approached the massive hole in the ground, "At least now he knows not to make mention of that unfortunate feature about me ever agai-…what? " But as the bottom of the crater finally got into view, Kid noticed something as missing. Ichigo was gone, the crater was completely empty.

"The hell? Where did he go? It's not like I missed him or something like that!" Kid started to freak out, preparing both his weapons in case of a surprise attack. But instead of getting such an attack, instead the young shinigami felt something lightly touch his head. Slowly looking upward, Kid was shocked to see Ichigo standing right behind him.

"Damn…now that was a blast, that attack had more destructive power then a Menos Grande's cero." Ichigo muttered looking at the massive crater he would have been laying in if he actually allowed the attack to make contact.

Turning his gaze back towards Kid, Ichigo started to ruffle his hair in pure annoyance.

"Are you always this violent kid? I make one comment about your hair and you try to nuke me? Was that really necessary?"

But what Ichigo hadn't realized was that while he hadn't harmed Kid as of yet, what he was doing to his hair was a bit worse. Kid had realized that his hair was no longer symmetrical the moment Ichigo started to ruffle it, turning his nice even head into a big mop of messy hair.

So imagine Ichigo's surprise when instead of getting a rude remark from Kid, he got a kid who was spitting up blood and collapsing onto the ground in unconsciousness.

"Ugh, he's so hopeless"

Ichigo stared at Kid's comatose form for a few seconds before turning his attention to the others, "…Can someone explain to me what the hell just happened?"

Patty and Liz then returned to their human forms and sat next to Kid, with Patty looking curious while Liz was just annoyed. "You messed up Kid's hair. As you noticed he gets a little sensitive when it comes to symmetry…"

Ichigo scoffed, "Yea...I kinda noticed."

"…well, when you ruffled up his hair, Kid freaked out about you messing up his symmetry and…you see the result." Liz explained, her sister meanwhile was trying to awaken the little shinigami (by poking him with a stick) but to no avail.

Ichigo just sighed to himself, picking up Kid's fallen form as he prepared to take the kid to the nurse's office. He had a feeling that this Kid was going to be a major pain his ass later on, he could be wrong though…hopefully.

But as Ichigo was leading Liz and Patty (who was making comments about Ichigo's hair now...he really should have seen that coming at this point), Ichigo heard a familiar and very annoying voice screaming at him in the distance.

"Ichigo you jackass! How Dare you steal my spotlight!" BlackStar roared at Ichigo, furious at the vizard for taking his battle away from him…even though he was getting his ass kicked in more ways than one. But that didn't matter to BlackStar; all that mattered to him was being the star. Why couldn't this goof stay unconscious for a little while longer?

Ichigo sneered at the ninja's words, but he wasn't going to lower himself to such a level that would require him to yell back at the kid. So what Ichigo did was simple, he gently handed Death the Kid over to Liz, picked up a small piece of the ground that was broken off earlier during Kid's attack and hurled it over his shoulder.

Hearing a yelp of pain in the distance, Ichigo once again lead Liz, Patty, and the unconscious body of Death the Kid down the hall of the academy to the nurse's office. Hopefully Kid would be in a better mood when he awoke from his self-induced coma.

All Ichigo needed was another massive shinigami inspired pain in his ass...especially if he was related to the old man up top.

* * *

><p><span>Here are some things I briefly want to go over.<span>

If you have not seen Soul Eater then Stein's abilities may confuse you, so let me explain. Stein is currently known as the best meister in the DWMA because of his extremely flexible Soul wavelength. Due to this special wavelength, Stein is able to manipulate his Soul similar to BlackStar but on a much larger level. He also is able to wield nearly any weapon he chooses, such as Maka's father Spirit.

Yes, Yoruichi is gone for the moment, but rest assured that she will return to the story later and will play a much bigger part in it. I'm still not sure if I'll make her a romantic interest in this story, but it can go either way at this point.

Please remember that I said in the first chapter that I was going to buff up the skills of a couple of Soul Eater characters in the story. I mean, while they do get stronger later in the series, a lot of the characters in Soul Eater were weak as hell in the beginning of the series. And seeing how this is Ichigo will the skill and power near the end of the Aizen arc (even though he uses only about as much as he had when he arrived in the Fake Karakura town with Unohana), I needed to make some characters stronger to keep the story interesting.

Next, sorry if you wanted to see more of lord Death and Kid in this chapter, but I wanted to focus more on Ichigo and the others. If I just cut away to Death the Kid and his dad as much as the episodes and chapters did, this chapter would have seemed like a just a readable version of the episodes/chapters with Ichigo in it. Though the next few chapters will have plenty of Kid, Liz, and Patty in it I promise.

Anyway, next chapter will see another Bleach character make an appearance (although this is where most Bleach characters will be a onetime thing, Yoruichi and a few others are just exceptions) and we will see the main villains for a time make an appearance (and you all know who that is).

See you guys then!


	8. Ichigo Unleashed! The Demon Sword

"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"_-Hollow/Weapon Form talking

**"Fight!"**-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8: Ichigo unleashed! The Demon Sword<strong>

It was a fairly peaceful night in the streets of London. The cobblestone streets were silent, the roads were empty expect for the few cars that traversed them during the dead of night, and the houses, shops, and historical sites were silent.

All so peaceful…and there was a clock shop on fire.

Okay then…not as peaceful as one would expect.

But as the flames enclosed the shop, a single figure leaped out of the inferno at a amazing speed. Landing on a nearby street light, the figure twirled his cane in annoyance. Things were not going as he had hoped.

Adorning his body was a particular set of clothes. A pair of high dress pants and shoes from the mid-1900s along with a straight jacket, not to mention the gigantic hat he wore upon his head. Limbs as thin as tubes of cardboard yet as long as a few yard sticks with gears sprouting from his back and arms, twitching like broken mechanisms and clockwork. And that nose, good god that man has a huge nose.

This was Tarrant Hightopp, a former owner of the resident clock shop. This of course was before the man's eventual fall into insanity and reformation as an evil human. While before he was a nice fellow that enjoyed seeing his creations helping others keep time, this monster of a man was now obsessed with gathering the souls of others, hoping to expand the ever shrinking clock that was his life.

For the last couple of days, this 'Mad Hatter' had spent his time creating unstable and unholy monsters out of gears and the bodies of the victims he had already killed. Monstrous creatures of rust and pain, they hunted nearly anything that had a soul, always on the prowl at an exact hour during the twilight hours of the night.

But these creations were the very reason why the DWMA had located the sociopath in the first place. While hunting down a lesser known target, a duo of students was attacked by these strange creations and in the resulting struggle they were able to capture one of them in one piece. With a certain scientist's efforts (which included taking the creature apart and putting it back together multiple times) the source of these vile creatures was determined and a single warrior was unleashed to deal with this threat.

Which of course brings to our current situation.

"Look at this travesty! This abomination of destruction and calamity! Do you realize what you have done?" Tarrant screamed in rage, the destruction of his workshop would set him severely behind schedule.

Stepping out the flaming inferno was the very man who was sent to deal with this evil human…not that he wanted to anyway. Hell, he would rather be asleep in detention due to the antics of a certain blue haired excuse for a ninja.

Tossing one of the hatter's destroyed creations to the side; Ichigo gave the madman a simple shrug. "Honestly? I more concerned about that giant nose of yours…"

"My nose? How dare you! You insolent little twit!" The Hatter instantly exploded into a massive rant, screaming at the young shinigami about various things that concerned time, his intelligence, and various other outdated insults.

"_Hey King."_ Ichigo tuned out the rambling of the steam punk wana-be and turned his attention to his inner world.

'_What?'_

"_You ever read that old story 'Alice in Wonderland'?"_Ichigo nodded, he had read that story once before in middle school, it was a fairly interesting read for an old fairy tale.

_'Yes…'_

"_Does this guy remind you of anything? I swear that huge hat reminds me of something from that book…"_

Ichigo thought for a few seconds about it. It had been a long time since the last time he read that book, so it was difficult to remember the exact characters from it. But there was always that diseny movie that he used to watch with Yuzu…ah, good times.

"Stop Ignoring Me! You insolent little pile of trash!" Tarrant roared in rage. His time had already been wasted by this fool, but was he seriously ignoring him now? That's just insulting!

In response to his rage, the man pointed his cane at the young youth. Flicking a small switch located on the device, the top of the cane popped open with a click. Seconds later a massive stream of flames burst from the small device, preparing to engulf the boy in its burning fury. But this was no issue for Ichigo, for with a simple burst of shunpo Ichigo was out of the range of the attack in a matter of seconds.

"You're going to need to better than that." Ichigo called to the hatter, having landed on a nearby lamppost after he dodged that inferno.

But Tarrant wasn't amused, it even looked like steam was going to explode from his ears in a fit of rage (and seeing how altered his body was…that may have been possible).

Quickly snapping his fingers, the hatter's grin expanded as the burnt remains of his workshop started to shift as something moved from beneath the ashes. Two large figures then lifted themselves from the house's remains, revealing themselves to the shinigami.

It turns out that these two creatures were the latest of the bazaar and disturbing experiments that the Hatter had been working on before he was caught.

The figure to the left resembled a large humanoid rabbit…or at least it might have before the hatter got his hands on it. Now this creature was a mess of flesh and gears, the lower portion of both of its legs had been replaced with mechanical limbs. Its left arm too, was now nothing but a slab of metal, although this one had a blade as a replacement for a normal hand.

The one to the right also had an animal-like appearance; this one was a very large mouse…although it too was twisted with the hatter's mechanical madness. Instead of having a normal set of legs, this critter had a set of wheels attached to its lower body. Its tail too had been replaced with a random series of tubes and tape, and there was even a key designed for a windup toy attached to its back!

It only took one glance for Ichigo to turn back to the Hatter with a disgusted look on his face, "You have some serious issues!"

The hatter just shrugged and waved off the insult, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your little insults will never hurt me."

"But you on the other hand…Hare! Mouse! Send this brute back to wonderland in a body bag!"

The metallic monsters just stared at their master in confusion, not really understanding. The Hatter slapped himself in annoyance; perhaps messing with their minds to such a degree wasn't the best idea.

"Silence this vermin! Kill him!" The Hatter yelled at his minions before turning away and jumping off the street light. But even after the madman vanished into the shadows, his voice could still be heard saying something along the lines of…

"And be quick about it! It's almost tea time."

The two minions quickly nodded at their master's order and charged at Ichigo (although the mouse lagged behind a little bit, he might have fallen asleep a few moments ago...lazy mouse).

The Hare's amazing jumping ability easily allowed it to join Ichigo atop the lamppost. Swinging its bladed arm at the young shinigami, the Hare's attack would have cleaved through any human in a bloody display. But Ichigo easily deflected the blade with Zangetsu and followed up with a well placed kick to the creature's head. The Hare staggered backwards for a moment (nearly falling off the lamppost in the process), giving Ichigo a clear opportunity to tear the monster in half with his sword and put it out of its misery.

But before he could do so, the lamppost started to buckle and fall. Looking downward Ichigo saw the other creature, the mouse. Using its newly metal teeth, the Mouse easily tore through the steel like it was cheese.

"Son of a bitch!" Ichigo cursed before leaping from the falling structure.

Materializing the reiatsu in the air, Ichigo created himself a nice sturdy place for his to stand on. But he didn't have a chance to enjoy this brief moment of peace.

Using the falling post's falling momentum, the Hare pushed off the falling frame and shot towards Ichigo. But as the beast flew towards the shinigami, Ichigo reared his sword back and swung Zangetsu, unleashing an unnamed Getsuga at the monster.

The blue arc of spiritual energy collided with the robotic Hare in a huge explosion, but it was not enough. The Hare (with its flesh now burnt into nothingness, all that remained was the metallic frame that the Hatter had installed) continued to sail towards the young shinigami, its blade prepared to slice up its target.

However, the Hare's speed was nothing that Ichigo hadn't seen before. With a simple sidestep; the Hare completely missed its intended target. Underestimating Ichigo's reaction time would be this machine's worst…and last mistake.

It was like slow motion. Ichigo lifted up his blade as the robotic Hare's eyes widened. A quick slash was all it took, for in a single moment the Hare was sliced in two before each section of the hare exploded in a bright light.

As the smoke cleared, Ichigo turned his attention to the remaining monster that the Hatter had unleashed on him. But he didn't expect what he saw.

The robotic mouse-type thing…was asleep!

"Ok…didn't expect this…" Ichigo muttered. You'd think a robotic death machine that was built by an insane time obsessed evil human would be more…fearsome, more destructive…more active.

Still, Ichigo wasn't complaining, this just made his job even easier. A sleeping mouse made for an easy target. Lifting up Zangetsu, Ichigo prepared to finish the robotic monstrosity as quick as possible. But before Ichigo could launch his attack the mouse's eyes suddenly shot open and with a screeching sound, the monster's back ripped apart with a sudden display of gears and wires.

In gruesome fashion, the creature's spine slowly (and painfully) separated into two parts before slowly rising upward. Somehow defying all the laws of physics (not that it was new or anything), the rodent's spine had morphed into a pair of metallic rods that were housing two identical steel cases.

Which then opened up into two identical missile launchers...that were pointed right at Ichigo.

"Well…crap."

Explosions erupted in a destructive display as the Mouse emptied its weapons onto the shinigami. There must have been at least twenty or thirty of the explosive projectiles, enough to easily demolish a small block or two.

Gazing up at the flaming cloud of destruction that its weapons had created, the Mouse waited for his enemy to show itself again. While the Hare was impulsive and fairly thick headed, the Mouse had a fairly complicated mind and a laid back personality (too lay back if you asked anyone else). It had a good hunch that its attack was nowhere near enough to defeat his enemy, and was prepared to continue its assault.

Reloading the launchers attached to its back, the Mouse slowly approached the position that Ichigo had been previously residing. Never taking its eyes away from the dwindling cloud (the wind was making short work of the black mess that disturbed the night sky), the robotic rodent primed its missiles and…

**-Slick-**

…suddenly found itself sliced in half by a massive oversized cleaver of a sword.

The machine had nearly no time to react to such an odd situation before its mind degraded in a pile of nothingness. And with an explosion that nearly matched its Rabbit themed counterpart, the Mouse drifted into a more…lengthy rest.

And up in the sky, the cloud of ash that the Robotic mouse's missiles had created finally vanished, revealing an basically unharmed Ichigo.

Reappearing next to his sword (which was now stuck in the ground), Ichigo took a hold of his Zanpakuto's hilt and pulled it free from the stone covered ground. Taking a quick glance at the surrounding alleyways and empty streets, Ichigo made sure that there that none of the Hatter's weird metallic creations were preparing to ambush him.

However after a few minutes there was no sight of any more of the Hatter's crazy machines. Taking a brief moment to sigh in relief, Ichigo then turned his attention to a much more important task. Find that big nose freak, aka: The Hatter.

"Fantastic…I look away for five seconds and that freak vanishes." Ichigo grumbled.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the Hatter had indeed taken the opportune moment and vanished from the local area. Now that seriously annoyed Ichigo. Due to the alterations that this Evil human had done to his body, it was extremely hard for even the most adapt sensors to locate this monster's evil aura. And seeing how Ichigo wasn't the best at sensing spiritual energy, it just made his job even harder.

Still, it's not like Ichigo could just say 'screw this' and leave. Nope, he had to bring the head of this madman (or his soul, whatever came first) back to the academy as proof of his mission's success.

But as Ichigo briefly thought to himself about where in the hell this madman could have run off to, he didn't quite notice a small shift in the remains of the Hatter's shop.

Rising out of the smoke induced remains was a giant metallic machine. It was made of large rusted pieces of metal; all put together like a welder had been in a drunken rage while at a scrap yard.

Attached to its left arm was a giant metallic fist, a giant blood covered fist of metal. And the other arm? A giant drill. Yep, a giant boiling drill was attached to its right arm. And finally, standing on the very top of the metallic monster was the Hatter himself and boy, he was pissed.

"Such a waste." The Hatter rubbed his forehead in annoyance, "My store, my workshop, Hare and Mouse…Do you have any idea how much work you've just wasted?"

Ichigo didn't say anything. Honestly, he was getting real tired of all this guy's complaining.

"Ten years…TEN years!" Hatter screamed in rage, "Ten years! 3,652.42199 days! All of it **WASTED!** All of that time…you owe me now! And it's about time you pay me back!"

Sinking into the machine, the Hatter grabbed the monster's controls and prepared for his revenge. Pressing a few buttons caused the machine to roar to life. The arms screeching as the metal shifted and tore against itself as the limbs lifted themselves for the first time. The drill started to spin and the fist smashed a nearby house in preparation. All of it meant one thing, this machine was preparing to tear his enemy a new one.

But really, Ichigo wasn't impressed. With all the weird technical weirdness that this Hatter had created...Ichigo expected something more than a giant robot. Still, Ichigo lifted Zangetsu off his shoulders and turned it toward the Hatter's giant.

It was time to end this.

**[Let the Madness Resume! Your Soul is Mine you pathetic little Twit!]- **The Hatter's voice roared out of the machine's speakers, echoing throughout the empty streets. Although, there was a new sound that his giant machine caused him to miss.

"Pum-Pumpkin..."

**[Your time is Up! The Gears of Time have dealt you your final hand!]**

"...Pumpkin..."

**[Now You Shall Di-]**

"Halloween Cannon!"

Without warning, a large orange beam exploded forth from the giant machine's torso. If one was to look at the scene from a different angle, they would notice that the beam was not coming from the machine itself, but it had ripped right through it. In a destructive display, the power of this surprise attack tore the machine to pieces (with the limbs going limp, arms falling off, and the chest portion [where the Hatter was] basically exploding into a fireball).

As the gigantic machine collapsed into a pile of junk, something small and smoking suddenly flew out of the machine's destroyed chest area and headed straight toward Ichigo. Quickly returning his weapon to his back, Ichigo caught whatever had flew at him just before it would have slammed into his torso.

Looking at the strange thing, Ichigo was annoyed to find out that the thing that nearly slammed into his chest like a cannon ball was actually…the Mad Hatter's head.

And even worse…he was still alive (somehow).

Ichigo glanced at the head with annoyance, "Well…that was anti-climatic."

**"DON"T YOU MOCK M-"**

The hatter started to scream at the shinigami, but Ichigo wisely dropped the head onto the ground in a effort to shut him up. And before the Hatter could roll over to his side and continue his rant, Ichigo lifted his foot and stomped on the hatter's head (Splitting it in two like a pumpkin, finally killing the Hatter).

"Man, this guy had a bigger mouth than Kon..." Ichigo mumbled, kicking the remains of the Hatter's head off his foot (inwardly glad he was made of gears and not...well, blood).

"Hey Ichi!"

Walking past the broken remains of the Hatter's machine, Blair gleefully approached Ichigo with smile on her face. Having been brought with Ichigo on this mission, Blair had been tasked to deal with the Hatter's weird monstrous creations while Ichigo dealt with the Hatter and his more important creations. In fact it was actually Blair who destroyed the Hatter's base (who accidently caused a chain reaction when she destroyed a few of the Hatter's Tea-pot machines).

Blair was so happy that Ichigo had brought her along for this mission. Combine the time she had gotten to spend with Ichigo (School had been really cutting into the time Blair had wanted to spend with Ichigo, much to her annoyance), she also got to kick some major ass!

"Like my new hat?"

Confused for a second, Ichigo glanced over to Blair and noticed that she had somehow retrieved the Hatter's oversized hat from the inferno and was now wearing atop her head. It wasn't that surprising that the oversized thing looked a lot better on her then it ever did on the Hatter himself.

Ichigo shrugged, "It looks nice."

Blair gleefully bounced on her feet at Ichigo's words before transforming in a 'poof' and returning to her kitty form. Perching on Ichigo's shoulder, Blair took notice of the empty streets and total depletion of the Hatter's monsters.

"So...are we done here Ichi?"

Ichigo, having just placed the Hatter's soul into the containment device that Shinigami-sama gave him on his first day (which of course looked like shinigami-sama's goofy mask) just gave her a simple shrug. "Pretty much, I think we are done."

Their mission was entirely made for them to hunt down and defeat the Mad Hatter, so now that he was dead...their job was pretty much done.

"Really?" Blair ask, getting a nod from Ichigo, "Yay! This place is too boring!"

"You think everywhere is boring!" Ichigo said, which got a fake look of hurt on Blair's face.

**-Death City: A few days later-**

It had taken a few days but soon enough Ichigo and his companion were gladly back inside the protective walls of Death City. Sure, he had to stop at a few places on the way back (Blair spotted a few places she wanted to visit), but still they were finally back (too bad it had to be nearly midnight though).

Ichigo had to admit, he was starting to warm up to this place. Sure it wasn't Karakura town or anything, nowhere in all of heaven or hell could take that place in his heart. Ichigo spent the most of life there, he grew up there...that place was where his mother was. And his friends, Orihime, Chad, Uyru, Tatsuki, they were all still there. Karakura town would always be his home.

But still, Death City was starting to grow on him. People like Maka, Soul, and even Blair were good friends and it was safe. Hell, there weren't even any hollows here! That was a factor in itself! And sure, things were crazy at times, but for Ichigo...things had to be a little crazy for him to feel normal these days.

So with Blair riding on his shoulder, Ichigo gladly started to make his way back his apartment. If there was anything Ichigo was looking forward to was a night of sleep in his own bed. He didn't even care if Blair tried any of her normal crazy stuff this time, all he wanted to do was sleep.

**'BEEP BEEP' 'BEEP BEEP'**

The familiar beeping sound resonating from his pocket nearly made Ichigo stop in his tracks. Why? Why now of all times did this have to happen!

"Ichi...is that?" Blair asked, her tone really not liking that sound (especially not at this time at night).

"Yep." Ichigo grunted, reaching his hand into his pocket and pulling out a familiar (and still goofy) mask that the Headmaster of the DWMA had given him on his first day. Whenever a message was being sent to the device the eyes gave off a weird red glow and made the most **ANNOYING** beeping sound. And there was only one reason why a message is being sent to it.

Shinigami-sama needed a job done.

"Ugh! Ichi do you have to!" Blair asked, coiling her tail around Ichigo's arm. She was really tired, but she also didn't want Ichigo to go off and do another job without her.

"Yep..." Ichigo grunted, still not liking it.

"Can I come with?" Blair asked. She knew how Ichigo would answer her, but she still felt like trying.

"Nope." And with that Ichigo made his way back to his apartment, set Blair down on his bed (she tried her normal tricks to get Ichigo to stay, but they didn't work...as well this time) and prepared to set off. Slamming his badge on his chest, Ichigo vanished in a burst of shunpo.

**-The DWMA, the Death Room-**

"Ok boss, you've got five minutes to explain why I'm not in my bed asleep before I knock your ass into next week." Ichigo ask the elder shinigami with a scowl, he was not in the mood for this crap.

Ichigo had arrived a few minutes ago with a huge scowl on his face. He instantly arrived at the Death room via a few quick bursts of Shunpo and soon came face to face with three people. Stein, Spirit, and Shinigami-sama were waiting for him.

"Ichigo, you should really treat shinigami-sama with more respec-" Spirit told the young boy, but got the tip of Ichigo's Zanpakuto pointed right at the center of his face.

"One more word perv, and I'm tossing your head though a window." Yeah...Ichigo really wasn't in the mood for any of this.

Feeling the tension in the room, Shinigami-sama decided that it was about time for some explanation for why he had called the three here. He was certain that besides Spirit, none of them wanted to be here (Stein was busy with a experiment and Ichigo wanted to get some sleep) to maybe it was about time to give them some reason.

"The Demon Sword has appeared."

Stein and Spirit instantly became serious at this news, but since Ichigo had no idea what a Demon sword was he still didn't see the point of summoning him at this time at night. Noticing the lack of caring in Ichigo's expression, Shinigami-sama decided to give him the short version the story.

"A Demon Sword is a meister and weapon that are one step away from becoming a Kishin. The whole point of creating this school was to stop this from happening, so it must be stopped as soon as possible."

And just to add some tension...

"The Demon Sword has also appeared at the same location that Maka and Soul are currently at while on a mission."

Now that was something that got every ones attention.

"So, I'm sending you three as back up for Maka. With the Demon Sword on the loose, I need my best men to go assist them." Shinigami-sama explained, but Spirit still had an important issue to bring up.

"Um...how do you expect us to get there in time? It would take hours to get there!" Spirit yelled, completely enraged at the fact that he may have no way to help his daughter.

The shinigami raised a non-existent eyebrow at the question, "Oh, that's simple."

Shinigami-sama waved his glove over toward his mirror, release a bit of black energy in the form of electricity. As the energy touched the mirror, the frame of the mirror started to shift and morph. The frame started to expand and shift upward while the glass mirror started tochange from its normal refletive apperance into a black void.

When the transformation had ended, the mirror now resembled a doorway, but to Ichigo at least...the mirror now resembled something else, something he was far more familar with.

A Garganta.

"While we supply the students normal ways of transportation when it comes to their missions, sometimes a more...direct approach is needed." Shinigami-sama's voice rang out, collected the three's attentions' away from the doorway.

"Indeed Spirit, this is the Dark Doorway To Salvation...or DDTS for short."

Spirit still looked utterly confused by all of this 'Door' business, "And it does...what exactly?"

"Well, due to the fact that my Death room is basically a separate dimension, this doorway allows me to open up a portal between anywhere in the Living world and my death room, allowing for instant travel."

Soul and Stein were amazed at this concept and the fact that it was actually possible (although Stein was more concerned with the fact that Shinigami-sama had been able to develop one sooner then he did). Ichigo on the other hand was concerned with something else...

"Why does it look like a Garganta?"

Shinigami-sama looked surprised at Ichigo's question while Spirit and Stein looked even more confused then they already had been.

"Well...I got the idea from a quite brilliant source. While I am unable to use a Senkaimon do to my obvious...differences with the Soul Society, I needed a similar way to connect my Death Room with the living world...so the next possible idea was using a garganta."

Ichigo rubbed his head with annoyance because of that answer. It didn't seem possible. Gargantas didn't work this way, and how someone was able to get something like this to actually work would have taken one hell of a mind. And besides, the only people that were able to open gargantas were Arrancar, Mayuri that one time, and...Wait a friggen minute.

"Did Urahara help you with this?"

Shinigami-sama shifted in his place for a moment, "Well...maybe a little."

"When I get back, I would really like a full explanation of all the stuff that nut is involved with." Ichigo told the elder shinigami before turning toward the gate. He was really getting tired of learning that Urahara of all people was the cause of most of the things in his life that broke all laws of physics.

"No promises." Shinigami-sama said as Ichigo walked away, 'smiling' at the trio.

"Figures..." Ichigo muttered before stepping into the void, Stein and Spirit following behind him (they were hushed away while Shinigami-sama answered Ichigo's question, not wanting to get even more confused than they already had been).

It turns out that despite the difference with the workings of the portal, the typical way a garganta looked was actually kept intact. The darkness, the endless void, the pieces of spiritual energy that floated throughout the darkness was all still there. The only major difference was that the walkway was now fully integrated into the path (when beforehand a person would have to shape their own path themselves).

But all thoughts about the gateway soon vanished as the trio approached the portal's exit. Exiting through a nearby mirror, the trio soon found themselves facing the empty streets of a town.

**-Meanwhile...the Church-**

'What now...what are we going to do now?'

Those were the words that were vibrating through Maka's mind. How could such a simple mission go down the drain so quickly?

Maka and Soul had been sent to the town to hunt down a evil human, nothing too big or anything. The mission was fiarly simple, they quickly found their target and eliminated him in no time. But it was at this point that things started to go wrong.

Maka soon felt an abnormal Soul wavelength coming from a nearby church. It was filled with what felt like more than three dozen human souls...and two others that felt like Miester and Weapon. Despite it not being a part of their mission (Soul even thought it could have been BlackStar doing something stupid), the duo quickly arrived at the location and were meet with a bizarre scene.

In once single moment, all the souls that Maka sensed earlier...vanished.

Despite bing overwhelmed with a feeling of dread, Maka and Soul soon entered the church and confronted whoever was in there. But what they found was not what they were expecting, for instead of finding a Meister and a weapon Maka and Soul found a single person standing in the center of the church.

This made Maka scratch her head in confusion for a few seconds. She still felt as if there were two souls in this church besides her and Soul, souls of a Meister and a Weapon. But her confusion soon subsided into realization as she connected the dots...

...whoever this boy was...his weapon was inside of his body...

The boy didn't even look at the two as they entered, completely ignoring them. He even started to talk to himself for a few moments before erupting in a tremendous amount of pain. Maka and Soul could only stare in horror as this boy's back suddenly exploded in what looked like...blood, black blood.

But instead of falling to the ground in a sick puddle, the blood curved upward above the boy's body and formed a body for itself. Attached to the boys back was now a large muscular figure with a large white 'X' over its head and two large white orb-like eyes.

Maka warned the two of what they were doing and the consequences that would come of it, but they did not care a bit. The figure then exploded into a fluid form again before reforming into a large black Claymore. He took the weapon and stared down Maka with a twisted look on his face.

The two pairs instantly engaged in combat, with Maka overwhelming to boy fairly quickly with her advanced agility and skills. But this did not last long, because the moment Maka tried to cut the boy in half with her weapon...something changed. The boy's blood hardened to the point that despite putting all of her strength into her attack, Maka could not breach the surface of the boy's skin.

It was at this point that things took a turn for the worse.

Being unable to inflect any notable damage onto her enemy, Maka was forced to go on the defensive. But when she blocked the first attack that her opponent made, she discovered a shocking revelation.

Her foe's weapon could produce vibrations at such a high level that by even touching Soul weapon form...he could cut into it, harming Soul. Unwilling to allow her partner to be harmed by such a thing, Maka refused to use Soul to block any of the boy's attacks and resorted to dodging any incoming strikes. But that wasn't enough, nowhere near enough.

Due to the isolated area of their battle and the fact that Maka couldn't attack or defend, she had only one option left in this fight.

Run.

But it turns out that even this was impossible now. For her enemy soon informed her that the doors of the church that they were currently fighting in were only able to be opened from the outside...which means...

She was trapped.

With fear keeping up her spine, Maka could only watch as her foe gleefully raised his weapon into the air, preparing to end her life. Soul screamed at her to guard, but she refused even at this desperate time...even with her life on the line she refused to allow her weapon to be harmed in place of her.

But when the weapon the boy was wielding was brought downward on this enemy, it was not Maka's blood that was spilt.

Soul had taken her place, and protected his meister.

Maka could only stare in horror as her weapon fell to the ground in front of her, a large bloody wound on his torso. Catching her weapon, Maka muttered apology after apology to her friend, terrified at the outcome she had allowed to happen. She couldn't even look up as her enemy descended onto them with one final attack, the one that would end their lives.

"Soul, I'm sorry..."

**-Slick!-**

"Wha? What happened? My Body?..." the boy's suddenly asked, utterly confused.

Confused by the lack of pain and the sudden sound, Maka looked upward in surprise. Out of nowhere, a large black Blade suddenly exploded form from the door behind Maka, impaling the young boy's torso.

The two didn't even have time to question what had just happened because in yet another second a fairly large foot came busting through the door, kicking the boy in the face and sending him flying across the church. Utterly surprised, Maka looked toward the source of such a kick and saw a pair of familiar figures walk into the church.

With his massive sword resting on his shoulder, Ichigo enter though the busted door with Stein following close behind. But at the sight of Stein, Maka came to a conclusion of what the blade that saved her was.

"So this blade is..."

In a flash of light, the massive curved blade suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a man in a black suit and red hair standing in front of Maka. This was of course, her father...Spirit.

"Papa has arrived!" Spirit said in pride. Spirit had been looking forward to his valiant display, this was a sure fire way to get back on Maka's good side. There was no way that she could still hate him after seeing him heroically save both her and her weapon partner!

"Professor Stein! How is Soul?" Maka asked her teacher, dreadfully worried about her partner.

"The Wound is pretty serious, he is going to need proper treatment soon or he may not make it." Stein told her, removing his coat and covering up the wounded boy.

...Too bad that idea went out the window when he realized that she wasn't even looking at him (Maka was in fact paying far more attention to Stein, who had rushed over to the wounded Soul the moment he entered the Church).

Sighing at the lost chance to impress his daughter, Spirit soon turned his attention back to the wounded boy. Despite being impaled though his torso, the child was surprisingly already on his feet.

**"Hey! Where are my thanks? I hardened the blood around the wound and stopped it from bleeding!"** A sudden voice called out from the Boy's torso, revealing the figure from earlier manifesting from the boy's wound.

"T-thank you..." The boy muttered.

**"Very Much!"** The figure screamed before putting the boy in a headlock, **"I'll beat the crap out of you! Very Much! Say it!"**

"T-thank y-you very m-much...Ow! Quit it! That hurts!" The boy replied again, trying to pry the figure off his head before any damage was done.

The duo continued despite the audience that they had before them. Maka stared at the duo for a few moments before turning to her teacher with a question. What was this guy? How could he do such things with his blood? How could he have a weapon inside his body? It made no sense! But before she could ask a single question a sickly cough caught her attention.

Soul seemed to be in worse condition then Stein had first thought. Quickly removing his coat from Soul's torso, Stien cursed as he examined the wound. "Shit! It's worse than I thought...we need to get him medical attention right now."

"What!"

Stein then turned his gaze on the one member of his group that they had yet to be recognized. "Ichigo! Can you handle this guy until we return?"

"What? Professor you can't be serious!" Maka screamed, the idea of leaving Ichigo to deal with this guy alone frightening her to the core. She understood that they had to get Soul to a hospital or something, but they couldn't leave Ichigo alone in all of this!...could they?

Ichigo, who during all of this had been standing across from the boy briefly, looked back to Stein with a hardened gaze. With a small nod, Ichigo returned his attention to the floor in front of him, his eyes filled with a emotion he hasn't felt for a while.

"Alrighty then." Stein said before gently picking up Soul, "We will be back as soon as we can, just hold him off till then!" And with that said Stein quickly ran out of the church with Maka (reluckently) and Spirit in tow.

As soon as the trio had vanished into the streets of the town, Ichigo let out a small sigh. Lifting the massive sword off his shoulders, Ichigo let the massive blade slam into the church's floor in a loud crunch. That sound also caused the duo bickering nitwits to finally snap out of their shouting and turn their attention to the only remaining person in the church with them.

"You know..." Ichigo called out to the two with a regretful tone, not even looking at them. "I was told that I was only brought on this mission to stop you, nothing more...nothing less."

"But after what you did to Soul and Maka..." It was at this point that Ichigo stared at the duo, his gaze finally meeting them.

"I am going to **Break you!**"

Ichigo instantly got the sound of a annoying and sadistic laughter as a response. The large black figure was laughing at him and his threat (While giving his partner a noggie), "**Break me? You think you can break me? That's hilarious you retard!"**

The black figure instantly disappeared back into his miester's body, **"Come on Crona! Beat the Hell of of this guy or I'll wake you up once every hour for the next week every time you try and sleep!"**

The now identified Crona seemed horrified at the very idea, "But the rings under my eyes will get even darker! I don't know how to deal with that!"

**"Then do it and end him!"**

With that final statement, Crona looked at the orange haired boy in front of him and charged, "I've never seen a boy with orange hair and a sword that big before! I don't know how to deal with that!"

**"EAT him! EAT him and then we can go after the ones that ran away!"**

With a small yell, Crona swung his weapon at the boy standing before him. But instead of bringing his own weapon to counter this one, Ichigo did something far easier. In a sudden flash, Ichigo completely vanished from the boy's sight, leaving Crona completely shocked as his weapon impacted the ground instead of his target.

Crona instantly tried to look around for his target, but before he could even catch a hair of the boy he suddenly found something strong grab his head.

"No, no you won't."

Ichigo, having reappeared behind Crona via a burst of shunpo, lifted the boy into the air via his head. With a heavy toss from Ichigo, Crona soon found himself flying though the air toward a very thick wall. But before the timid boy slammed painfully into the wall, a familiar orange haired figure appeared in his path.

Lifting his arm into the air, Ichigo slammed his fist into Crona's face as he flew toward him, knocking the boy once again into the air. Quickly retrieving his sword, Ichigo launched himself into the air above Crona and lifted his blade upward.

"If your blood can protect you from being cut, let's see how much punishment your body can take!"

Swinging his sword forward, Ichigo released a unnamed Getsuga Tenshou. The Blue ark of energy slammed into Crona's torso before exploding on impact, propelling the boy back to the floor. Crona's body smashed into the ground with a sickening crunch, leaving the boy in a small crater that his body created.

Ichigo dashed through the air in a burst of speed toward Crona's prone form, content on continuing his beat down. But when he was about a yard away from the boy, he caught something in the corner of his eye.

Coming to a sudden halt in mid-air, Ichigo was met with the sight of a long black spike nearly impaling him in the head. Tracing the spike back to its source, Ichigo was surprised to see it come from a small puddle of blood.

"His blood..."

_**"Ichigo! Move!" **_

Hearing his Zanpakuto suddenly scream, Ichigo quickly vanished in a burst of Shunpo. Reappearing near the church's entrance, Ichigo saw why Zangetsu had warned him. At the very spot Ichigo had been floating a second ago was over fifteen spikes...all. If Ichigo hadn't moved...then he would be swish cheese right now.

_**"Ichigo, I can feel that beast's soul in each drop of that boy's blood!"**_

_'Damn, why did Spirit have to impale this guy? That just makes it more annoying.' _Ichigo's thought as the spikes slowly shrunk back into their individual puddles of blood. Due to the fact that Spirit impaled Crona when they arrived, there were multiple puddles of blood scattered around the church.

Lifting Zangetsu over his head, Ichigo prepared to clear the church of not only all the blood but Crona as well. But before he could unleash his attack, something caught him off guard. Floating in the air were multiple small orbs of blood, all in which were surrounding the young shinigami. With small sharp spikes on the tips of the orbs, a sudden high pitch voice screamed out.

_**Bloody Needle!**_

Crona's weapon Ragnarok watched gleefully as the orbs of blood launched their needles at his enemy. He told that moron that he would didn't stand a chance! That douche was so stupid! Now he was about as usefully as a pin cushion. Maybe his soul would be tasty even if it had some holes punched in i-

"That's a nasty trick you got there..."

**"WHAT?" **Ragnarok screamed in rage, his pupil less eyes widening at his enemy. How could he still be alive! He didn't dodge, he didn't move, he just stood there! He should be dead!

But he wasn't. Ichigo was just standing there, not moving an inch since the attack was launched. But there was something different about him...something changed, but Ragnarok couldn't anything! All he could see was a strange looking shoulder pad being gripped in Ichigo's hand.

"Using your blood as a weapon, that's a new one..."

Ragnarok was enraged. Taking a closer look, he noticed that his Bloody Needle attack were frozen in place. They weren't moving or attacking, they weren't even responding to his commands...why? They were a part of him! Why we they not killing him? It made no sense!

"...but you want to know something?..." Ichigo asked, starting to slowly walk toward Crona and his weapon. It was at this point that Ragnarok noticed something utterly freighting.

As Ichigo walked past the orbs of Blood that had been surrounding him, they disappeared. No, that isn't a correct assessment, it was more like they turned to ash...falling apart. Why were they falling apart?

Suddenly in the blink of the eye, Ichigo suddenly appeared in front of Crona in a flash. It wasn't the same shunpo that he had used before; he just appeared...as if it was just speed itself. Crona was so freaked out by the sudden closeness that he nearly fell on his behind. But fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, Ichigo was there to catch him...by lifting him up by his shirt.

"I'm **sick** of bullshit tricks like that!" Ichigo sneered at Crona.

And then without any warning Ichigo threw Crona like a baseball, sending the boy flying through the air at tremendous speed. But this time, Crona was sent flying through the Church's entrance, landing quite painfully on the stone streets of the town. Sitting up from the recent ass kicking, Crona felt his head spinning like a top.

"Ugh...I think I have a concussion...I don't know how to deal with that..." Crona muttered while Ragnarok tried to snap the timid out of it.

**"Damn it! He rattled your brain!"** Ragnarok shook Crona's head in desperation, **"Hurry and come to your senses!"**

"I don't think so..." A sharp voice made Ragnarok freeze up for a brief second before slowly looking back toward the church. Its fears were realized because there, at the entrance of the church was Ichigo, his eyes tearing into the weapon's skull.

"You have wasted enough of my time, it's time we finish this." Ichigo called out as he started to approach the two, causing Ragnarok to twitch uncontrollably.

**"No! No! NONONONO! YOU ARE FINISHED!"** Ragnarok screamed before he completely manifistated himself above Crona. Then in a sudden explosion, Ragnarok blew himself up and transformed into over a hundred of small orbs of blood. These orbs quickly surrounded the orange haired shinigami.

_**BLOODY NEEDLE!**_

The massive number of spikes suddenly exploded forth in a massive attack. If you were to compare this attack to the last one, then the former would have been a pile of sticks and the current one would have been a giant haystack of needles. Crona couldn't even see Ichigo anymore, the shear number of needles were just too great.

**"HA! How does it feel to be like a needle in a haystack...OF NEEDLES!" **Ragnarok laughed like a maniac, **"You were so mighty! You said you were going to break us! You stupid dumbass!"**

"Actually...it felt rather nice."

Those words make Ragnarok freeze in shock. No...There was no way in hell the hes...any way...

Reforming his head from Crona's earlier wound, Ragnarok stared at the giant haystack of bloody needles. There was nothing for a few seconds; you could hear a pin drop it was that quite. But like the sound of shattering glass, a small portion of the needles suddenly exploded into nothing.

**"How...the Hell?"**

With a simple swing of his Zanpakuto, Ichigo shattered and destroyed the rest of the bloody needles before walking once more toward the duo. Noticing Ragnarok still shaking in fear (and Crona was still light headed from getting tossed around like a rag doll), Ichigo prepared to end this needless struggle.

Too bad someone else beat him to the punch.

Stepping a few feet further towards the Demon Sword, Ichigo felt the sudden appearance of a Soul Wavelength, and despite his current 'condition', Ichigo could easily tell that this one was a **very** powerful one. Looking upward towards its source, Ichigo was raised a eyebrow with what he saw.

Floating right inform of that insane moon was a woman on a broom. She had her face hidden by a hood, but Ichigo could clearly see the long Blond hair she had along with some kind of strange tattoos on her arms. But what surprised Ichigo the most was her soul wavelength, not only was it powerful but it also had a similar feeling that Angela had...which meant one thing.

She was a witch.

"I must say, you put on quite a show Strawberry-san." The witch called out to Ichigo, causing him to sigh in annoyance. Ichigo really hated it when people gave him nick-names.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at her, "That's nice, I always intend to up on a good show. But before I continue this performance, may I get your name madam?"

The witch gave out a chilling chuckle before shaking her head, "Oh in due time little boy, in due time." Then the witch turned her head toward Crona, "But before we continue this conversation, I need to pick something up." And with that said, the witch began to chant a weird set of words while waving her arms.

**"Snake-Snake, Cobra-Cobra."**

**"Snake-Snake, Cobra-Cobra."**

At first Ichigo didn't understand what the witch was doing with these words, but then he remembered the chants that Blair normally does before she fires any of her attacks. Ichigo was about to get a first hand test of a Witch's true magic.

Suddenly, the strange tattoos on the witch's right arm suddenly came to life before Ichigo's eyes. With the ink transforming into a gigantic snake-like creature, Ichigo watched in confusion as it slowly reached down to the ground a picked up Crona.

Lifting the Demon Sword back up to her, the Witch gave a small chuckle before turning back to Ichigo "Well Kurosaki-san, I'm sorry to say that it's time for me to depart, I'm sure I'll be seeing you again soon enough though." And with that, the witch and Crona began to float away on her broom, but a single question caused her to stop in her tracks.

"How do you know my name?"

The witch turned her head with a creepy smile, "Oh Ichigo, I have been watching you for a long time now, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that I know your name."

And Ichigo just grunted in annoyance before swinging Zangetsu behind his back.

"I hate being watched by someone I don't like. You weren't the first. That man has a special place in the worst portion of my mind, and I'm sure you won't be the last, but that's besides the point..."

Ichigo continued as his tone turned from calm to furious in a few seconds, as his rage continuing to build. His Zanpakuto glowed blue with his spiritual energy and the ground itself started to dissolve.

"And what is your point?" The witch asked.

"The point is...I killed the last man who spied on me in a rather painful way; don't give me a reason to do the same to you!" Ichigo roared, swinging his Zanpakuto in anger.

_**Getsuga Tenshou!**_

The massive arc of energy was propelled in a destructive force, much larger than any of his previous attacks could even hope to be. The Witch's eyes widened at the sudden attack and quickly got to work to try and counter it. Quickly moving her hands in rapid succession, the witch called out a spell as a insane number of black spikes of energy shimmered into existence.

_**Vector Arrows!**_

The exact numbers of the energy arrows that she produced was uncertain, but the mass numbers she mad could have blocked out the sun if she did it during the day. They raced through the air at a unimaginable speed, racing to rival the massive attack Ichigo had unleashed.

As the two attacks finally collided, the explosion was immense. It filled the sky with fire and destruction that would make a couple of war grade missiles look like some Fourth of July fireworks. And even when the explosion finally ended, the smoke that it left behind still filled the air.

Realizing that the smoke would give the witch a huge chance to escape, Ichigo swung Zangetsu with enough force to make the smoke vanish in an instant. But by then it was too late, the witch and the Demon sword (Crona) were gone.

"Damn."

Shaking his head at his failure, Ichigo walked back toward the remains of the Church (it kinda got damaged during the explosion). Lying near the busted entrance was something that had been a part of Ichigo for a few weeks now, something that he hadn't taken off since...that incident.

It was a metallic shoulder pad; some specially designed by old Hat and Clogs himself with a single purpose. The purpose of keeping Ichigo's powers in check. Now it wasn't something that was forced on Ichigo by Urahara, no...Ichigo wanted it for himself.

When Ichigo learned the Final Getsuga Tenshou, he did it for the sole purpose to kill Aizen...and that was it. But somehow, he did it without using that power...but now, Ichigo had no idea how to use it. He had seen what Aizen could do with his power and Ichigo's was even greater then Aizen's at that point.

It's just too much for a single man...too much for a teenager. Especially one that wants to protect everyone around him...

Clamping the device back on his shoulder, Ichigo imminently felt a rush of power leave him. But to him it felt normal, it felt right...and it also brought to familiar voices back to his mind. Voices that whenever Ichigo removed that seal vanished into the void, making him feel so...alone.

"Ichigo!" The sudden sound of a new voice quickly brought Ichigo out of his inner thoughts (much to his relief) and back to the real world. Looking for the source of that new voice, Ichigo let a small smile come to his face when he saw Maka running toward the church.

"Hey." Ichigo greeted the young girl as she walked up to the ruined church.

"Ichigo! What happened? Where is the Demon Sword? And what happened to you? I couldn't feel your soul wavelength for a while! What happened?"

Maka bombarded Ichigo with multiple questions, something Ichigo had expected to happen. Combine the recent events (the battle with Crona and Soul being harmed), sensing Ichigo's soul wavelength suddenly vanish and the massive destruction that was now present surely must of caused some questions to appear in her little head. But before she could get too deep with her questions, Ichigo grabbed her by the shoulders and brought himself to her level (a thing he had to do a lot with the students at the academy seeing as he was taller than most of them).

"Maka first things first, how is Soul?" Ichigo was far more concerned with the status of her partner then answering all the questions she had for him.

Maka stopped her barrage of questions for a moment (looking quite embarrassed as she did so) and thought back to Soul, "Professor Stein has gotten him stable for now, he should be fine until we get him back to the academy."

"That's good." Ichigo gladly replied, happy to know that his friend was okay. Letting out a brief sigh of relief, Ichigo patted Maka on the back and started to make his way back towards the portal that Shinigami-sama made earlier.

"Ichigo wait, what happened?" Maka tried to ask the shinigami what was wrong, but he just shrugged her off.

"Maka, I'll tell you tomorrow." Ichigo waved back to her as he walked away, "Right now, I'm going to bed."

And with that remark Ichigo disappeared in a burst of shunpo, if there was anything on his mind at this very moment...it was how much sleep he could get in before he had to go to school the next day.

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><p>And there we go, Chapter 8! I'm sorry for how long it took.<p>

If any of you guys have any questions on this chapter and my logic in all of this, please send me a PM or a review (That I can reply to), I'll try with the best of my abilities to answer them.

Oh, and don't expect Ichigo to remove that seal a lot. That is going to happen a very few times in this fic, this instant was just the first out of a very few times you will see it.

I'm sorry I couldn't add any Bleach characters in this chapter, it just had a nice ending point in my mind and by adding a character would have made it run on too long. But trust me, next chapter you guys will have a Bleach character appearing! (and no, not Kenpachi **YET**, I have plans for him).

And if anyone of you guys have guessed, the Mad Hatter and his two robotic minions were based on the characters from American McGee's Alice, although made to fit the Soul Eater Universe (also that Robot was also from the squeal, Alice: Madness Returns).

Edit: Also, I'm looking for a picture for this story (via the new Image manager for this site), If anyone has any ideas just say so!

So that's it for this time my friends, I'll try and get the next chapter out sooner then this. So see you all then!


	9. Explainations filled with Neeldes

*So...its been awhile hasn't it...heh, yeah...damn.*

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><p>"Well it could be worse."-Speaking<p>

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"_-Hollow/Weapon Form talking

**"Fight!"**-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name

~Please read the information at the bottom of the chapter, it details a lot information that concerns the future of this story.~

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><p><em><strong>Chapter #9: A bookworm and a hollow...fantastic...<strong>_

Do you want to know the best word to describe that dreadful morning you wake up to after an extremely tiring night? One that leaves you with cramps, headaches, and the worst case of the 'I really don't want to wake up' that you've ever had.

Well…you may want to ask Ichigo. He currently has a few thoughts that could easily describe this type of morning in various details.

"Agh…my neck…" Ichigo grumbled while rubbing his neck in annoyance. This was probably what a hangover felt like…although without the getting drunk and needing a cold shower part anyway.

Ichigo had learned the hard way that releasing his seal had a few aftereffects that came along with it.

When Ichigo had gained this power previously, the Final Getsuga Tenshou was the source of this power. This unique Getsuga is a destructive attack without any equal within Ichigo's arsenal that unfortunately causes the complete eradication of Ichigo's powers after its use. This was due to the fact that the Final Getsuga Tenshou's overwhelming power would overload Ichigo's soul, effectively burning out his shinigami powers.

But, that was no longer the case. Due to Ichigo's 'alternate' method with dealing with Aizen, the Final Getsuga Tenshou was never used and the power never burned out Ichigo's powers. With that said however, this power still had an overwhelming presence in Ichigo's soul. Using such power without a way to rid himself of it, Ichigo now is faced with a few painful repercussions whenever he uses this power. These repercussions normally include massive fatigue, strained muscles, and a few nasty headaches.

Still, it was still a major alternative than what would have happened originally. At least this way all he needed to do was get a bag of ice and take it easy for awhile. Much better then…nothing.

Slowly sitting up so not to wake the slumbering kitten, Ichigo gently slipped off his bed and made his way to the nearby desk. There is a certain duty that Ichigo had been neglecting for awhile now. So taking up a pen and paper, Ichigo began to write a letter to someone important.

XX

_Dear Rukia._

_Hey, it's been while hasn't it?_

_This place is actually pretty nice when you get use to it. The people are kind, for the most part anyway. It's also pretty interesting, sure there are no hollows but there is a substitute for them in almost every regard. Heh, that's odd isn't it? I'm a substitute shinigami and now I'm fighting something that could be called a substitute for hollows. Wow, in the middle of America and yet I still can't get away from this crazy lifestyle can't I?_

_Still it is a bit nutty here, but it's the good kind…for the most part. Hell, you should see the moon and the sun…you would flip out like you would never believe._

_There a few 'interesting' people here as well. They have some abilities that could take even the weirdest of you guys by surprise. I even got myself another Mayrui in this city…although this one has a giant screw in his head, literally. Hell, there is ANOTHER lady here that can turn into a cat and she likes to tease the hell out of me as well. Can you believe that? I cannot get a break…(she'll kick my ass if I don't mention her in this)._

_Ah well, I feel like I'm monologuing now. How's it going on your end? Anything crazy going on in the Soul Society? Hollows? Kenpachi getting bored again? I don't know it's just been awhile since I saw you guys and…well I haven't been in the Soul Society that much when something nuts ISN'T happening. It's a force of habit, thinking of the worse most of the time._

_I know it's a long shot, but you know anything about Karakura town? I realize that you aren't stationed there anymore after that afro guy took over for you (Whatever his name is…), but still it would be nice to hear about what's going on there and how everyone is doing._

_Is Inoue doing okay? I know my leaving had a big impact on her…is she doing okay? Acting alright I mean? Is she still herself? I'm just worried._

_Anyway, thanks for your time Rukia. Hope to see you and the other sometime._

_And Kon, if you are reading this, don't even think about it._

_No, Seriously. Just don't, it's for your own good._

_P.S_

_-Oh and for the love of god, DO NOT GIVE KENPACHI MY LOCATION!_

_I do not need his brand of insanity! I actually have a wide variety of insanity to keep me comfy for the time being so there is no need of you to add to it. No, seriously, do not tell him. Tell Kenpachi anything. Tell him I'm in Europe, Asia, or the North 'fuckin' Pole...or even Hell itself!_

…_Actually…maybe not Hell, he may be crazy enough to go there just hunt me down…_

_Whatever the case is, please do not tell him I'm here! I'll owe you anything, just don't tell him. _

_Sincerely, Ichigo Kurosaki._

XX

Sighing to himself, Ichigo set down his pen and just stared at the letter. Was it enough? Did he forget anything in it? What if the address that Kisuke gave him was a load of crap? It wouldn't be a surprise, considering everything that Urahara 'forget' to mention before Ichigo left.

'Eh if it is, then it's just another thing I can use as an excuse to beat him into the pavement.' Ichigo shrugged to himself.

Slipping the letter into an envelope and tossing it into his bag, Ichigo went off to prepare for school. There were plenty of things Ichigo had to be concerned about and anything related to Urahara was pretty low on the list when all things were considered.

Was Soul okay? His injury was pretty bad…

Where did that Witch come from? How did she know him?

But there was one other issue, one that Ichigo himself created last night.

_**Maka.**_

When Ichigo told her that he would tell her of what happened last night, she really took it to heart. The exact moment Ichigo walked through the academy's doors the next morning, Maka was waiting for him.

Oh man, never underestimate the power of a bookworm on a mission.

She was a force that could not be denied, the only reason why Ichigo was able to escape her was the constant use of his agility (which were previously used in such a manner in order to escape the Captain of the 11th Division in previous encounters) and a few lucky distractions such as a humorous incident with Death the kid finding a painting (that Ichigo made in under a few seconds) that was completely unsymmetrical.

But Ichigo wasn't someone who was known for his luck, because even that had to end at some point.

It was lunchtime when Ichigo was finally confronted by the unrelenting Scythe Meister and there was no escape. Ichigo was backed into a corner and he was still stuck in his body, there was no way out of this. It was either face her and tell her the truth or get the unholy crap beaten out of him…with a book.

Weighing his options seemed like a lost cause right now…

"You have ten seconds…"

"Okay, okay, just give me a second too-"

"No!" Maka cut him off, "You have been dodging me this ENTIRE day! Every time I see you, some crap gets in the way! So now that I have you right here, you will explain!" She was so close now and she is not let Ichigo delay this any longer!

'Why is every short girl I know, they have one hell of a temper?' Ichigo questioned, wondering what he might have done in a past life to deserve this.

Ultimately submitting under the gaze of the scythe meister, Ichigo signaled her to follow him and walked out of the Cafeteria. If Ichigo had to explain something of this magnitude, he was not going to do it where a bunch of people would ease-drop on them.

What? It's a cafeteria in a public school, people tend to listen to things that…_they really shouldn't._

Heading toward their classroom, Ichigo was thankful to find that the room was empty. If there was one thing that Ichigo did not want to deal with, it was Doctor Stein listening in on whatever Ichigo was about to reveal. This guy was crazy enough already, he did not need any more reasons to tear Ichigo apart in the name of science.

"Okay, lunch is over in…" Ichigo glances at a nearby clock, "…five minutes, so you are going to get the short version okay?"

Maka protested of course, "What? No! You-" But Ichigo cut her off.

"Hey, Stein is not hearing any of this! You can take this or try again later!" Ichigo retorted.

Honestly, if Ichigo tried to explain his entire situation to Maka…it would take a lot longer than five minutes. With the various powers he had, the concept of both hollows and shinigami along with the Soul Society itself that needed explaining, Ichigo wouldn't have been surprised if it took more than five **hours** to explain in detail. So the threat of the resident mad scientist listening in was just a covenant excuse.

Despite wanting to her the entire story, Maka agreed with an annoyed huff. She figured that it was better to get something then to get absolutely nothing.

Ichigo clapped his hands together with a smirk, "Okay then, now before I start…do you have any paper or crayons?"

Maka gave him a strange look, which obviously meant a solid 'No'.

Ichigo couldn't help but let out a sigh of disappointment, "Damn, I had most of these explanations told to me with a bunch of really bad drawings. I thought they could make it easier for you if I had some."

That was a funny thought. Despite how much Ichigo complained about her doodles, about how crappy they were and how much of a bad artist she was…Ichigo couldn't help but admit that he missed Rukia…even if it was just her completely horrendous drawings.

Taking a seat in a nearby chair, Ichigo looked at Maka with a strained stare, "Okay pick your poison, what do you want to hear first?"

"Huh?" Maka was confused, she thought that is was going to be a simple story about what happened last night, but what did he mean?

Cracking his knuckles, Ichigo raised three fingers.

"If I am going to explain what happened yesterday, I'm going to have to explain a few things to you first. These things are 'Hollows', 'Shinigami', and a 'Zanpakuto', now which one do you want me to explain first?"

Maka thought about it for a few seconds before she picked one, "What's a hollow?"

Eh, Ichigo couldn't complain. Out of all these things, at least this one had something that Ichigo could draw some parallels with. When he thought about it, Evil Humans were quite similar to hollows in a lot of ways besides being alive…for the most part anyway. Still, Ichigo quickly began to explain the basic concept of a hollow to Maka (although, an abridged version for the most part).

"A hollow…is very similar to the evil humans that we hunt…"

"While an evil human is a living person who has been corrupted due to them eating another person's soul, a hollow is something like that…but slightly different."

"A hollow is the result of a person's soul becoming corrupted _after _they die." Ichigo expected Maka to react to that, which she did.

"How is that possible? All the souls that I've ever seen are just these small blue orb-like things?"

Due to the implications that Shinigami-sama put in place, Student's of the DWMA have rarely if ever seen a real human soul. Instead, they take very simplistic form so that the student's don't witness the more…gruesome consequences of seeing a human soul being devoured.

"Ah, but these souls are different. It's not devouring another soul that corrupts these souls; there are only two things that can cause a human soul to become a hollow."

Maka raised an eyebrow at that, "Which is?"

"Time and suffering."

Maka didn't really move for a few seconds, "What?"

Madness was the normal reason why Evil humans were created, but time and suffering? Unless that time and suffering eventually lead to madness, it did not make much sense if these 'hollows' were created without madness in the mix somewhere.

Ichigo let out an annoyed huff, ignoring Maka's question before continuing, "A person's soul and body are connected to each other via something called the 'Chain of Fate'. Whenever this chain is broken, it signifies that the person has passed away."

"But despite being broken, this chain remains of the soul's torso and slowly starts to…fall apart from that moment onward." Ichigo briefly remembered his own chain of fate…and how it basically ate itself into non-existence in front of his own eyes.

That…was not a pleasant memory in the least…

"But the moment when the chain is completely eroded, all that is left is a hole where the chain was previously…which happens to be where the person's heart was."

At this point Maka finally got something, "Is that where the name 'hollow' comes from, because that hole is where their heart was, making them 'hollow' inside?"

Ichigo shrugged, "That's what I'm guessing at this point, but that's beside the point,"

"After the chain is gone, the person goes through a disturbing transformation that eventually leads to the person becoming a monstrous creature that barely even looks human anymore."

It's true, hollows normally has very few characteristics left after their transformations that actually still resemble their original human appearance. While a few of them do appear to have a humanoid body structure, nearly everything else is completely inhuman when it concerns a hollow's appearance. They could be in the shape of bugs, animals, or even things that could only be described as nightmare fuel.

Hell, despite seeing a few evil humans during his time at the academy…Ichigo has yet to see one that could come close to the frightening appearance of…_**THAT**_ hollow…

Ichigo did thankfully 'forget' to explain the full transformation that a person goes through when they become a hollow. Considering that he nearly went through such a transformation, Ichigo felt that Maka did not need to be fully informed on what happens to someone…on both the inside and out.

"After that, the hollow begin to hunt down and devour human souls, much like that of an evil human." Ichigo looked back at the clock, seeing that there was still about two minutes left.

Sure he left a few…noticeable things out of his explanation but hopefully Maka wouldn't notice.

Looking back at his classmate Ichigo noticed that she was still waiting for him to continue.

"Okay, what's next?" Maka gave him a stare that basically said 'that's it?', "Hey, you are getting the summarized version, that's it for the hollow subject, pick your next one."

"Jezz, you don't have to be so pushy." Maka grumbled.

Ichigo chuckled at her, "Hey, it's your clock that's ticking. You may want to pick the next topic before your time runs out."

Seeing his point, Maka thought for a few more seconds before replying once more.

"What about the shinigami?" Maka asked.

Ah, now this was a subject that would be hard to explain. How would Maka take it when she learned that Shinigami-sama was not the **only **shinigami (besides his son) in existence? How would she react if she found out that there was an entire realm of shinigami that protected humanity from hollow's on a daily basis?

"Well…a shinigami is a soul that has gone off to the afterlife and at some point becomes a spirit that defends the living and afterlife from hollows…" Ichigo tried to explain with the straightest face his could muster…too bad that wasn't saying much.

"Seriously? You really expect me to believe that?" Maka deadpanned.

Ichigo couldn't help but chuckle at that. Her reaction was so similar to how Ichigo reacted to the same thing when Rukia told him all this a few months ago. Although…her reaction was a bit less angry and it also didn't include a flipped chair.

From then on, Ichigo tried to explain the concept of a shinigami and their duties as best he could. Of course he had to leave out a bit more information than his hollow explanation, but it was necessary. Maka wouldn't understand some of the more detailed things that revolved around the shinigami and the Gotei 13. How would she understand the fact that the Soul Society has been around for so long? How would she understand that some of the souls that the shinigami dealt with went straight to hell from time to time? How would she understand their relationship with the Quincy and how one of the two groups now had a number of two?

With Maka, she more or less wanted nothing but the cold hard truth, but sometimes…the truth should be ignored.

But that's not saying that Ichigo lied to her or anything. Everything he told Maka was the truth done to the last detail. But…he just left a few things out that's all. Whatever the case was, Ichigo's luck must have returned at this point because Maka didn't question any of it…well, she didn't question the holes in his story at least.

But by the end of the explanation, Maka was satisfied with what she got for the most part. Ichigo pretty much explained the duties of a shinigami, what they were, and where they lived. Although it took him a few tries to explain the Soul Society right. You'd think a bookworm like Maka could understand the concept of the afterlife being a separate dimension that is basically a second chance at life for anyone who is sent there…

Okay, maybe that is a tough pill to swallow…

Still, Ichigo was eventually able to get the concept through her thick head and she understood it…perhaps Rukia's doodles could have been more helpful than he originally thought?

Dismissing the thought, Ichigo once again asked Maka what she wanted to hear. Although it was kind of pointless at this point, there was only one choice left…

"Now that all of that is out-of-the-way, can you please tell me what the hell a Zanpakuto is?"

Giving her a strange stare, Ichigo reached back and grabbed Zangetsu's handle. Lifting the massive Zanpakuto off his back, Ichigo gave the sword a good long look before he began his speech.

"This is Zangetsu, he is my Zanpkauto. I first made contact with him during a training session known as the shattered sha-"

**-DING!-**

Much Ichigo's relief and Maka's dismay, that 'ding' was the sound of the lunch period ending. Maka's five minutes were up. Shortly after the bell went off, the remainder of the students started to pour into the classroom and at their seats for the rest of the class period.

"Well, times up. Maybe we can finish this…a bit later." And with that Ichigo returned to his own seat, leaving Maka to filter through the amount of information she had just been handed.

Although this would not be the end of this conversation…not by a long shot.

Class went on like normal or as close to normal as things got around here. Maka wouldn't stop staring at Ichigo, obviously still sore that their conversation had been cut short and Death the Kid nearly had a break down when he accidentally spilled something on his suit during Stein's daily dissection experiment. Still compared to everything else...this was pretty tame.

It was only after class when things started to get interesting.

Ichigo was about to head out when Professor Stein interrupted him. Ichigo dreaded the ideas that came to mind when Stein was concerned, but it turned out that Stein just wanted to tell Ichigo that Shinigami-sama wanted to see him. Glad to be escaping anything that Stein had in mind for him, Ichigo took off towards the Death Room.

It couldn't be any worse than what Stein could have had in mind...right?

**An Hour or two later…**

"Does he tend to be late this much?"

"Well…not that often…sometimes…" Tsubaki stuttered for a few seconds. She really didn't want to insult her partner…

"…"

"…Okay, it's almost always like this."

"Thought so." Ichigo said with a smirk.

Two hours. BlackStar, Ichigo's classmate and Tsubaki's meister was about two hours late. You would think that a guy like this, who claims that he would become greater than god could be on time for once? But no, he was late and his two partners were stuck waiting for him before they could begin their latest mission. Still, it did give Ichigo a few minutes to look back on why he was in this position in the first place.

**Ninety Minutes Ago**

"_You know, if you keep bringing me on these missions like this…I'll start to think that you brought me here just to be a baby sitter."_

"_Oh come on Ichi-kun it's not that bad." Shinigami tried to convince the youth, but a glare from Ichigo kindly silenced him. Shinigami-sama had explained that Tsubaki and BlackStar were set to take a very dangerous mission and he would accompany them on it. But to Ichigo, there was a bit of an issue.  
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"So, _why am I necessary for this? Couldn't you send anyone else?"_

_The old shinigami released a sigh. Turning his gaze on the graveyard that made up his chamber, Shinigami-sama began to explain a very delicate secret to his student._

"_You remember the wavelength I told you about? The one that directs souls to the Soul Society?" _

_Ichigo thought for a few seconds, eventually remembering one of the various things that he was informed of on his very first day in Death City. It was an ingenious wavelength, that basically transported the souls of the dead directly to the Soul Society while leaving their spiritual energy behind. With something like this, no soul would be devoured by a hollow or even have the gruesome fate of becoming one ever again. But unfortunately the Central 46, the government body of the Soul Society denied its use, forcing the old shinigami to use more 'creative' ways to get his invention out. Still, that is an unfortunate situation. If only the Central 46 weren't as strict in these matters. If it wasn't for them, then the world could be a much better place...right?_

"_While the Central 46 was the main reason for my project's dismissal...they did have a reason." Shingami-sama explained, giving Ichigo a real shock for once. Come on, they have had a pretty bad track record in the past so it was hard to imagine them having an actual reason for doing something stupid.  
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"_While my project does work, it does have its...glitches."_

_Ichigo really didn't like the way that sounded, "What kind of glitches?"_

_Letting out yet another sigh, Shinigami-sama elaborated. "While the project does work, as you have seen, there are a few 'dead spots' that exist in the world."_

"_Dead spots?"_

"_Little areas in the world where the wavelength just doesn't reach or just occasionally doesn't work for random intervals of time...I have no idea why this happens or how to repair the mistake, but it's there..."_

_These Dead spots were pretty much holes in Shinigami-sama's wavelength. While normally the souls would be transported to the Soul Society, these holes negated that effect and left them stranded. Now while this seems fairly simple, it created a very dark problem for Shinigami-sama._

_There was very few ways to predict the locations of these Dead Spots and even if someone could discover the place they could be, the time it would take to get someone over there would take too long and by then it would be too late, the damage would already be done.  
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_Imagine if you were a hollow, in a portion of the world that had no fresh souls to eat. That would make any hollow very hungry and extra grumpy. Now due to these portions of the world normally being a dead zone for hollows due to the lack of food, shinigami don't patrol that much. And due to the random nature of these occurrences, it would seem like a waste of resources to send out shinigami to places that 'could' be in danger of hollow attacks.  
><em>

_ With this lack of shinigami and loss of the Wavelength's transporting power, any souls trapped in these Dead spots would be utterly unprotected.  
><em>

"_But what does this have to do with Tsubaki and BlackStar's mission?" Ichigo said, trying to get back to the original purpose of this meeting._

"_Hm?" Shinigami-sama briefly forgot, "Ah, yes. The location where the Demon Blade, BlackStar's target has been identified as one of these 'Dead spots' for the time being."_

"_Meaning?" _

_The shinigami turned around and stared into Ichigo's eyes, "It means that besides the Demon Blade himself, these students may also have some hollows waiting for them as well."_

_Now that was a __**very**__ good point...and one that Ichigo could not ignore._

_"But why not send someone else!? Someone more suited for this kind of crap?" Why send children into this if they didn't know whats coming? Evil humans are one thing, but to go into this with no knowledge of what else is waiting for them is suicide!  
><em>

_"This mission is personal to Tsubaki, to deny her this would be far more damaging than anything a hollow could do to her." Shinigami-sama explained, giving Ichigo a new insight on the situation at hand. There was of course the option of waiting for the Dead Spot to vanish, but since the Academy actually knew that the target would be at the location at the appointed time, waiting for the Dead Spot to pass may just give the target enough time to perform its dark deed and escape.  
><em>

_That was something that the school and the residents of the area could not afford despite the risks._

_"Now then Ichigo," Shinigami-sama said once more, "Will you aid them in this mission, or leave it up to fate's hands if they survive or not?"  
><em>

**Back in the Present:**_  
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"So...Tsubaki, how are things going with the two of you?" Ichigo asked, trying to make a bit of small talk to pass the time. Too bad he wasn't any good at it.

Tsubaki quickly looked to the ground, "Fine, everything's fine for the most part..."

Tsubaki flinched at this, not really expecting this. Throughout the year so far, Tsubaki hadn't really gotten to know Ichigo all that much. While he was a friend of Maka and Soul (BlackStar as well...sometimes), Tsubaki hadn't really gotten that much contact with the orange haired Vizard. He was a bit too brash and harsh for Tsubaki's tastes, but he did seem nice enough.

But the main thing that drew her attention was his fighting style. Being a weapon herself, Tsubaki was a bit interested in Ichigo's sword.

It wasn't a weapon like her, the Thompson sisters, or Soul. It looked like a normal blade, never-changing into a person and always being present on Ichigo's back. But if that is true, then where did that power come from? That same power she saw during their lesson with professor Stein and Sid. It was so similar to how a Meister and Weapon work together, but then again it was so different.

She could just ask him straight out, but she didn't like that option. What if it was personal? What if he didn't want to talk about it? Tsubaki wanted to give Ichigo his privacy...but her curiosity was still nagging at the back of her mind.

But before Tsubaki could make up her mind, something loud and annoying burst through the classroom doors. BlackStar had finally arrived, but the moment he noticed Ichigo he had only one thing to say...

"Why the hell are you here?!"

Oh this is going to be a _fantastic _trip isn't it?

**Some Time Later: Just outside the Village of Needles (Shin).**

So after dealing with a very boring plane ride to East Asia and walking through a massive dank forest, the three finally nearly reached their destination. And so far, Ichigo was fairly happy about a certain part of their journey. Oh sure, he was tired of walking and the plane ride along with the forest was really starting to piss him off, but at least there still no hollows!

...probably shouldn't have said that...

The three students finally arrived in their target location...and it was quite interesting. Besides being in a very isolated (in the middle of a forest and surrounded by a bunch of mountains), there were also a few giant spikes sprouting throughout the village. At least the trio finally knew why the village had the nickname 'The Village of Needles" now.

The trio quickly started to explore the village in search for the Demon Blade but the town was looking much closer to a ghost town then a town where someone would come to devour souls. But while exploring the town a particular member of the group found a way to escape his boredom...

"HYAAAA!"

"Does he do **this** often as well?"

"Um, not this exactly..."

Ichigo and Tsubaki just looked on in embarrassment as BlackStar screamed to the heavens in perhaps an attempt to get the village's attention while standing atop a random statue in the middle of the village. Why? You may be asking. Well, neither Ichigo or Tsubaki had the answer as they are just as confused as you are.

Tsubaki was more concerned with the fact that BlackStar might actually break the statue he was standing while Ichigo? Hell, Ichigo was just waiting for someone to come out of their house to tell BlackStar to shut the hell up.

_'I mean seriously, how can anyone just sit in their house while listening to this? It would drive me insane...'_

_"Hey King, aren't you already a bit insan-"_

_'Don't go there, just...don't'_

While this was going on in Ichigo's head however a old man finally exited his house and stared at shock at BlackStar, "Oi! Get off our village's guardian kid, you'll be damned if you screw around with that!"

BlackStar instantly stopped his shouting contest with god, jumped off the statue, and rushed toward the old man. Lifting the old man off the ground, BlackStar instantly accused him of being the Demon Blade. The old man of course denied the claim and Tsubaki even tried to calm the ninja down. Ichigo took more drastic approach however. Walking over to his fellow student, Ichigo grabbed BlackStar from behind (Which caused him to drop the old man) and put him in a headlock.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing Strawberry!?" BlackStar shouted, not happy about being lifted off the ground by his head.

Ichigo scoffed at that, "Stopping you from physically assaulting a old man, do you seriously think that this old man could be the Demon Blade?"

BlackStar looked confused for a second but quickly glared at Ichigo, "Maybe! Shinigami-Sama told us that the Demon Blade had the ability to possess a person's body, anyone here could be the Demon Blade!"

"If this guy was the Demon Blade, why the hell did he let you pick him up by his shirt dumbass? Randomly going up to someone and asking them 'Are you the Demon Blade?' is not going to get us anywhere!" BlackStar however didn't listen and still accused the old man of being the Demon Blade. This went on for a few more seconds before more people started to arrive, obviously attracted by the noise.

"Hey gramps, who's this? Visitors?" A young kid named Ryoku asked, arriving with the other villagers.

Hearing the kid, BlackStar lost interest in accusing the old man and attempted to accuse the kid of being the Demon Blade now. But along with still being in a headlock via the local Vizard, Tsubaki quickly covered her meisters mouth and silenced him, "Enough already."

Ryoku looked on at the trio with utter confusion, seeing these three strangers acting like a group of children. But a particular thing he noticed was a tattoo on BlackStar's shoulder, the star tattoo in particular. Seeing this caused the boy to take a dark expression

"What business does a member of the Star Clan have here...ARE YOU HERE TO KILL MORE OF US?!"

The trio from Death City stopped struggling with each other and stared at the boy with confusion. Why would he think BlackStar would be there to kill actual people? And what was this business with the 'Star Clan'?

"That tattoo on your shoulder! You're a survivor of the 'Clan of the Star'?!" This time is was the old man, who also looked quite distressed by the situation at hand. During this a small object suddenly flew towards the air towards BlackStar, who merely caught it with no effort. Taking a glance, he noticed a that the object he caught was a coin.

"Money?"

"You guys from the Star Clan do anything for money right?" Ryoku spoke out, "Well then, take this and get the hell out!"

More of the villagers started to come out of their homes at this point and join in on the kids rant, all screaming for BlackStar to leave and a few even started to throw rocks at the young ninja as well. Tusbaki just looked confused by what was happening but was completely ready to escape if things got too out of control. Ichigo however was about done will all of this shit and his eyes instantly focused on the cause of all of this madness.

Walking up to Ryoku, Ichigo lifted up the kid by the scruff of his shirt and nearly drilled a hole through the kids head with a glare, "Kid, I have had to sit through one boring ass flight, walk through a dank forest, and listen to someone who has had far too much sugar lately..."

"...I am not in the best mood, so why are you all throwing rocks at my buddy?"

The kid stared back in silence for a few moments before struggling to escape from Ichigo's grip, "So you don't know? You don't know what the hell his clan did to us!?"

"Nope."

Ryoku looked surprised for a second before reverting to an annoyed twitch, "Seriously? You have no idea?" Still no reaction from Ichigo, who still had no idea what the kid was talking about. Although all this commotion did lead to one thing...no one noticed something huge approaching the town from a far distance.

_Thump!_

"The just shut up and leave! None of us want anyone like _him _here!" Ryoku shouted once more, still not standing down from his position despite how close he was from getting his ass kicked by one very annoyed Vizard.

_Thump! Thump!_

"Do I look like I give a damn!?" Ichigo very close to just kicking this kid's ass. Star Clan or not, this kid had no right to talk to BlackStar, Tsubaki, or anyone like that!

_Thump! Thump! Thump!  
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The two continued their shouting match for a few more minutes, but the sound of something fairly large started to attach more attention than their pretty argument. When the sounds got louder and few trees fell in the distance, Ichigo's own attention was finally drawn to whatever was approaching...which felt far too familiar.

"Um...what the hell is that?" BlackStar asked, his mouth hanging near his knees in surprise (And anticipation).

"...Damn you old man..." Cursing the old shingami that foretold this Ichigo focused on the monster approaching the village. It had been a very long time since Ichigo had fought a hollow and while he had destroyed countless in the past...the sight of these creatures still unnerved the young shinigami on some level of his soul.

"But more importantly! I'll deal with this monster while you guys deal with the Uncanny sword!" Ichigo told his friends, removing Zangetsu from his back and prepare for combat.

BlackStar stood in front of Ichigo, his goofy face twisted into a glare. "Like Hell! I'm not going to let you steal all the glory by killing this big ass thing!"

"..." Ichigo stared at his temporary partner, "..seriously? Now of all times...you have to do this?"

"Yeah! There is a giant monster attacking a village! I have a chance to kill it and prove how much of a badass I am!" BlackStar shouted, "How often do you think a thing like this happens?!"

_'More often_ then_ you would think dumbass...' _Ichigo thought to himself. Still, now Ichigo had to think of something that would get BlackStar to NOT try and kill the much larger and deadlier enemy. But...how? Give him some stupid rumor about hollows? Try and convince him that the hollow was actually insanely weak and not worth his time? Toss his ass back to the academy so Tsubaki and Ichigo could finish the mission? But there was one more question that entered Ichigo's mind...

"BlackStar...how would you even kill that thing?" Ichigo raised his eyebrow, eagerly awaiting the ninja's answer.

"Um..." BlackStar muttered before looking toward the massive hollow. His eyes went over the entire creature, looking for any sort of weak point on the creature. It took a good few seconds for the ninja to finally respond, but his words were not that inspiring.

"I'll figure something out!"

_'Bull Shit!'_

"Agh, Tsubaki? What do you think about this?" Ichigo was nearing the end of his patience with the blue ninja. While rubbing his forehead in frustration, Ichigo hoped that other side of the pair would be a bit more understanding.

Tsubaki stuttered for a second once she heard this. Why her? Why ask her opinion on this? Sure she had taken this mission for a personal reason, but she wasn't expecting a giant monster to crash the party! Quickly taking a glance at the monster she would be facing with BlackStar...Tsubaki really had one thing come to mind.

_'Why does BlackStar always get me into these situations?'_

"Well maybe we could...perhaps BlackStar can...I could-" Tsubaki tried to come up with a decent answer for Ichigo and her meister, but she couldn't think of decent idea that wouldn't eventually end with one or both of them getting eaten by that giant creature. This caused silence to pretty much engulf the trio.

...until...

"I have no idea." Tsubaki said out of the blue, catching both BlackStar and Ichigo off guard.

BlackStar stared at her with very wide eyes, "W-what? Tsubaki are you serious? Come on! We can kick this things ass!"

BlackStar quickly ran though multiple reasons why **he** should be taking on this massive behemoth and **not **Ichigo. Tsubaki briefly tried to convince her meister to see her point of view, but BlackStar was far to resilient in his efforts to take on the massive monster himself. During their conversation though Ichigo took the chance to quickly come up with a new plan for the ninja. However he had to be quick, the massive hollow may be slow but it would arrive sooner or later and they had to be ready by then.

Luckily, he didn't have to think that long.

"Hey Blackstar, I have an idea for you." Ichigo called out to the duo, "Whats more important? A giant monster or the mission?"

BlackStar stared at the shinigami for a few seconds as if he had grown a second head, of course he didn't understand Ichigo's question at first. So Ichigo had to explain a little bit.

"We were sent here to deal with the Uncanny Sword right?" BlackStar nodded at this, "A mission that seems far too dangerous for someone like us right?"

"Yeah, so?"

Ichigo's eyes twitched for a split second due to that but he continued on, "So...what do you think people would be more impressed by? You killing a giant nameless monster that people could claim you made up or you completing your mission?"

Hearing these choices made BlackStar take a moment and think about them. Either he could destroy a massive monster or complete his incredibly dangerous mission...ah, which to choose? Of course while the clueless ninja was considering his options, Ichigo and Tsubaki were sweating bullets. There was a giant monster slowly making its way towards them...time was not on their side at the moment.

"Agh! fine" BlackStar finally spoke up, "But you better not gloat about this and make me look like a wimp!"

Ichigo shrugged at the idea, "Wouldn't think of it."

Turning to Tsubaki Ichigo looked her with a frown, "I'll be back, be safe and make sure this moron doesn't get himself killed." The young weapon gave Ichigo a slight nod and with that the Vizard vanished into the forest, slamming his badge to his chest as he took off to kill whatever was out there.

Witnessing Ichigo vanishing into the forest briefly left a small hint of worry in Tsubaki's chest, her careful nature acting up once again. Her friend was going to confront a mysterious monster in the forest, how could she not worry about him? Quickly pushing this feeling to the side, Tsubaki quickly turned her gaze on the village.

She had a family reunion to get to.

**A few Second Later:**

Swimming though the sea of trees with his shunpo, Ichigo made his way toward the hollow. Luckily it didn't take that long for him to find it...it was pretty hard to miss.

The monstrous hollow was gigantic, its appearance nearly reaching the height of a Menos Grande if not for the fact that it was hunched over on its forearms.

Its head was covered in large white bone mask that took a very savage and disturbing shape that was quite similar to a fish or a serpent. The hollow's mouth looked quite similar to a clam or an oyster, its jaws ready to clamp down with amazing force. Its eyes were also visual for once (with normal hollows their eyes were normally hidden by their mask), but the black pits didn't involve any reassurance in the young shinigami.

Its arms were gigantic, so long that the beast multiple joints throughout its arms that could bend and be used as another set of legs. There was also a second pair of legs sticking out of the monster's torso but they were fairly short and had no overall use at first glance. The rest of its body was fairly standard with two strong legs supporting the lower half of its body and a large tail that was being dragged through the dirt.

Noticing the reiatsu in the air and the figure in its path, the hollow stopped its march right in front of Ichigo. Leaning forward with its massive arms, the hollow brought its head down to Ichigo's level. Staring at the young boy for a few seconds, the hollow took a small breath and blew some air through its nose, blowing a bit of dirt into the air and at Ichigo.

_"What are you here for boy?" _The deep and gravely voice echoed though the hollow's mask. This actually caught Ichigo's interest, it wasn't often that Ichigo met a hollow that could talk that wasn't a arrancar.

Still, Ichigo was taken back a tiny bit by the monster's question, "What?" A few seconds went by in silence, "Isn't it kind of obvious?"

The hollow huffed again, _"Obvious to you, but not to me."_

Lifting Zangetsu over his shoulder, Ichigo gave the hollow an annoyed stare. "Well...I'm here to kill you and protect the village you are currently marching towards."

_"Yes, but why are YOU here for boy?"_

"Excuse me?"

_"I have lived in these words for years."_ The hollow began, _"Hueco Mundo no longer interests me since that filthy shinigami took over lord Barragan's empire. I've lived off the souls of foolish travelers that do not head the warnings of this area. For years I have tended to ignore nearly everything around me...but there is one thing I have noticed."_

"And that is?" Ichigo really wanted this monster to get to the point.

The hollow leaned in ever closer, _"A lack of Shinigami."_

Oh, Ichigo got a bad feeling about this.

Lifting itself back into a standing position the hollow continued, _"You would expect a hollow such as myself to be hunted by your kind, right? Hordes of you coming to take my head! But...there has been none."_

_"I had started to believe that your kind had abandoned humanity..."_

Ichigo stood silent for a few moments before suddenly letting out a small chuckle. "You really think that?"

The hollow did not respond to that so Ichigo kept going, "It's not that at all buddy" The cloth covering Zangetsu suddenly started to unravel, "We just simply forgot a cockroach like you actually lived here! We've been so busy lately that we had no time for a bug as small as you!"

Narrowing its eyes, the hollow crouched lower to the earth in a pouncing stance while Ichigo removed his Zanpakuto from his back in preparation.

_"Well then shinigami, prove to me that you can handle a 'bug' such as me you BRAT!"_

With that said, the hollow used its massive legs to dive toward the young shinigami. Ichigo easily escaped this however due to his impressive speed, leaving the massive hollow to smash face-first into the ground. Growing in furstration, hollow swung one of its massive arm through the air in retaliation. Ichigo however easily jumped over the appendage and sent a slash of energy via Zangetsu at the hollow's face, exploding against the hollow's mask.

_"You trash!"_ The hollow roared, its massive arms continuing to swing at its foe. But Ichigo proved much to quick for the hollow's massive arms, his shunpo easily dodging and counter attacking with his Zangetsu. The hollow just proved to be too big and slow to attack effectively...and the sad thing is, he knew it.

With its strength proving to be useless, the hollow clenched its teeth together and roared into the air. Ichigo raised his eye brows at this but soon noticed a strange occurrence happening to the creature. The hollow's body was originally covered in a large amount of scales like a reptilian, but now the 'scales' were moving...

_"Tell me boy...how do you think a being such as myself could gather my meals without being noticed?"_

Shifting and expanding, the scales started to shift into something else.

_"With a body this large, I need something or someone to bring my feast to me..."_

The surface of the scales then started to crack and fall apart, revealing a much smaller creature underneath.

_"...Now my children, bring me that shingiami's head!"_

With those words, the dozens of 'scales' shrieked in unison. Looking closer, the 'scales' actually revealed themselves to be dog-sized parasites. While it seemed that not all of the hollow's scales seemed to be these creatures, there were still a fairly large number of them. Heeding their master's call, the creatures launched towards Ichigo with an impressive speed. They were eager to devour the boy, it had been a very long time since the last time they feasted on a shinigami.

Too bad their meal would go unfulfilled.

"Nice try," With a few quick slashes however the parasites suddenly found themselves sliced to bits with relative ease, "But a guy named Shrieker had a bit like that once too, but his trick worked far better than yours does."

The hollow barely had time to react as Ichigo dispatched his horde of servants, their bodies utterly dismembered by the massive Zanpakuto. Seeing one of his back up plans utterly failing before his eyes, the hollow's patience really started to unravel.

With its mind quickly being overcome by frustration, the huge creature began to smash nearly everything in sight with his two massive arms. The behemoth crushed everything around him with its arms, not caring if it killed the shinigami or not. Overflowing with rage, the hollow screamed at his foe with unyielding hate.

_"Stand still! You bastar-" _The hollow would have continued, but these words died in its throat.

The cause of this was what the hollow saw. Gazing at its own massive left arm, the hollow noticed that there was something quite odd on it. No, it wasn't a rock or a patch of dirt...it was Ichigo, who was wearing one of his most nasty grins in his life.

With a sudden dash, the orange haired shinigami started to make his way up the massive hollow's arm. The hollow attempted to summon its personal parasites that were located on its forearm to defend itself. But these creatures were no match for the might of Zangetsu as Ichigo easily sliced them to bits.

With its last defense out-of-the-way, Ichigo jumped off the massive hollow's shoulder and swung his Zanpakuto towards the hollow's neck. But instead of easily slicing the creature's head off, Zangetsu became stuck between the scales that surrounded the fleshy parts of the hollow's neck.

_'His neck is armor plated?'_ Ichigo wondered, his mind briefly becoming distracted._  
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This moment of distraction would cost Ichigo however. With its foe caught off guard, the massive hollow quickly swung one of its smaller arms toward Ichigo, nailing the teen in the chest with a heavy blow. Throwing the boy off the massive hollow (dislodging Zangetsu in the process) and sending him crashing into the ground in front of him, the monstrous hollow expected his foe to be done for at this point.

Now imagine its anger once Ichigo quickly got to his feet while only releasing a small cough or two while doing so?

"You are a tough one, aren't cha?" Ichigo grinned as he raised his sword back into a fighting stance.

The hollow merely growled at the shinigami, its rage nearing its limit. Digging its claws into the soft dirt, the hollow lifted its head upward and released a massive roar, one that echoed through the forests that surrounded them on all sides.

Having heard things like this before, Ichigo prepared for the hollow to charge him or try to escape from the fight...but what it did next was the very thing Ichigo had been trying to avoid.

Soon enough the ear shattering roar died down, but the hollow did not close its mouth. Instead the beast widened the gap between its jaws even further. Farther and farther did this monster's jaws spread, almost as if they would go on forever. But soon enough the monster's jaws opened up so wide that they released a sickening **'crack'**, its jaw finally dislocating itself from the rest of its head. With that done the hollow quickly brought its head back down toward Ichigo, a red light quickly growing between the monster's massive jaw.

_'Cero!'_

Ichigo has had enough experience with hollows and arrancars to know when a hollow was going to fire one of those damn things. All he had to guess now was how long it was going to take to charge the attack. He wouldn't have to wait long however, because in the time Ichigo could blink...the hollow fired.

_**"CERO!"**_

The massive beam was quickly unleashed upon the landscape, burning trees, rocks, and the earth itself. It was quite lucky that Ichigo had his back facing just a bunch of trees. If he had his back facing the same direction of the village, this would have ended very poorly. Ichigo wasted no time in dodging the attack with a his shunpo. Reappearing above the hollow, Ichigo swung Zangetsu behind his back. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

With a mighty swing, Ichigo's attack smashed directly into the hollow's neck and knocked it straight into the dirt. This unfortunately caused a large portion of dirt to be blown into the air, making it very difficult for Ichigo to see if he had killed the hollow or not. Cursing the dirt in his eyes, Ichigo dove towards where the hollow should have been...

...but when he pushed himself through the dirt cloud, Ichigo got an uninvited slap across the head by a giant forearm.

Grunting from the impact, Ichigo twisted himself in mid-air and landed on a nearby tree branch. A tree that was then imminently torn apart by the rampaging hollow. Escaping once more, Ichigo finally got a good look at what his attack did. Glancing at the hollow's neck, Ichigo became annoyed when he saw that his Getsuga had only made a slight gash on the hollow's neck.

Why is it whenever Ichigo tried to take someone's head off with a Getsuga...it only ever gives them a tiny cut?

Putting a bit of distance between himself and the hollow, Ichigo began to search the hollow for some kind of weakness. Its skin was too had to penetrate with Zangetsu, it was far too big to simply smash its mask with brute force, and he really did not want to waste his bankai on something as trivial as this!

So what was left?

Meanwhile, the hollow did not take too kindly to losing his prey once again. Shifting its jaw back into place, the hollow took a deep breath and started to launch a series of balas in Ichigo's general direction. Luckily for Ichigo, the trees were quite useful in dodging the balas.

However during this glorified game of cat and mouse (With Ichigo hoping from tree to tree as the hollow tried to blast him) Ichigo finally noticed something. Focusing his gaze on the hollow Ichigo noticed that whenever the hollow launched a bala or a cero, the red sacks on the hollow's neck expanded and glowed a deep crimson. Getting an idea, Ichigo lowered his reiatsu as low as he could and made his way to the top of the trees.

Landing on one of the tallest branches he could find, Ichigo kept quite for a few moments to see what the hollow was up to. It seems that despite Ichigo escaping its field of vision and reiatsu sensing range, the hollow continued to unleash balas into the forest. It was determined to flush the shinigami out, even if it meant demolishing the entire forest to do so.

So now all he had to do was wait...

**Bala!**

...for the perfect...

**Bala!**

...moment...

**Bal**-

_Now!_

Ichigo quickly descended from his perch with great haste, his body aimed directly for the hollow below. The monster of course noticed this and lifted its head so it could intercept the shinigami in mid-air. But it was too late, with Ichigo's enhanced speed he was on top of the hollow before the creature could even twitch.

_-Slick-_

With one quick slice with Zangetsu, Ichigo delivered a devastating wound. The location?...the very same one that had been building up energy for a bala. One of the two red sacks that were attached to the hollow's head, the left one to be exact. So what do you think happens now that this delicate area had a big gaping hole in it? Oh right...

It exploded.

_"AGH!"_ The hollow roared in agony, the left side of its face reduced to a bloodied mess. When the sack exploded, it released all the built up energy at once and caused a massive backlash, delivering an untold amount of pain to the hollow. Seriously, how would you feel if you had a massive hole blown in the side of your head? It would not be pretty even if you were a massive monster from the afterlife.

_"YOU BASTARD OF A SHINGAMI! YOU DARE DO THIS TO ME!? I'LL TEAR YOU APART FOR THIS! YOU HEAR ME!? I WILL-"_

_-Thunk-_

Nothing more was said from the hollow, it had not the will or the nerve to continue. Due to its blind rage, the hollow hadn't had the time to notice as Ichigo appeared next to him, a mere few inches from the right side of its head. It was only the sound and feeling of Zangetsu being shoved into the hollow's other energy sack that got its attention.

Unlike its twin at the time of its own destruction, this one lacked any spiritual energy inside it. But that did not help make it feel better. These two parts of the hollow's anatomy were the most delicate and weakest portion of its body. They were pretty much its only real weak spot since they had no protection from the hollow's thick skin. These sacks were actually the very reason why the hollow had such long limbs and those parasites, so the hollow could keep its prey as far away from these weak spots as physically possible.

Not like that mattered anymore, this battle was over.

No more banter, no more quick remarks, Ichigo was done playing with this monster. So with his sword lodged quite deeply into the hollow's cranium, he only had one thing to say.

"Getsuga Tenshou."

With a blue light emerging from all possible directions, the hollow felt only the slightest of pain as Ichigo's attack was unleashed. In a matter of seconds the hollow's head and utter body was obliterated from the inside out. All that was left of the once mighty hollow was its legs, which soon dissolved into spirit energy seconds later due to its death. And with that, all that remained from the battle was the victor...who was currently trying to get the blood off his Zanpakuto.

"Figures, even this guy's blood is a pain to get rid of!" Ichigo mumbled to himself.

So after around...fifteen minutes or so of scrapping blood of his sword (Hey! All you try wiping a monster's blood off you giant cleaver-like sword with only some cloth! It takes awhile!) Ichigo started to make his way back to the village. The trek back was actually quite simple, the hollow had knocked down so many tree that it was quite simple to see the village from their battlefield. But as he walked though the village's gate...something was wrong.

The town was a bit of a mess but with BlackStar around it was to be expected. But when Ichigo finally came across his fellow students, something was off. BlackStar was sitting on the ground...and being quite!? How that hell is that possible? He was also wounded, but it wasn't something too serious for BlackStar to handle. He's been through much worse.

Ryoku was also there for some reason but he was laying off to the side, unconscious.

Finally...where was Tsubaki? She wouldn't leave BlackStar while he was wounded, Ichigo knew enough about her to know that much. But then where was she? Did she go off to find medical supplies for BlackStar? Check on the villagers? Find the...

Wait.

What about the Demon Blade? The Uncanny Sword? Ichigo could feel that it was still alive...but where was it then? Did it escape? Run for the hills after BlackStar defeated it? But then why was Tsubaki just sitting here in front of...

...in front of a black sword.

* * *

><p><strong>General references and notes:<strong>

-Yep, I gave a actual reason for Shinigami-sama's invention being declined by the Central 46. Yes, they are morons at times...but hey, even they have to have some reason sometimes.

So, in certain places around the world human souls operate the same way they did in Karakura town at random times and random locations. Due to the Gotei 13 not needing to patrol because of the lack of hollows normally...well, it doesn't end well. So that's why Shinigami-sama had to leave the Gotei 13 in order to activate his invention, the C46 weren't just being douches...mostly.

-The scene where Ichigo hitched a ride on the hollow's arm and tried to take his head off with a Getsuga Tenshou was a direct reference to both his and Kenpachi's encounters with Yammy, the 10th/Zero Espada. Thinking about it...Yammy was a pain in the ass to kill too

-The Hollow's appearance is pretty much taken from the monster from the horror film 'Cloverfield'. Only this time, it wasn't a pain in the ass to kill! And there was no shaky camera...or nukes (if a Getsuga Tenshou going off inside its head doesn't count).

**So about the long ass time it took me to get this chapter out...yeah, we need to make some changes:**

1). Shorter chapters. The one of the main reasons why this chapter took so long is that I originally wanted to cram the entire "Uncanny Sword" story into one chapter. With that and the fact that I wanted Ichigo to not be involved with BlackStar's fight (so creating another fight for Ichigo), this chapter would have been long as hell...okay, longer as hell. When a chapter is going to be that long, it gets hard to write the entire thing in a go due to the fact that you want to take breaks, taking breaks means that you may not be in the same mindset when you start again and it'll be harder to get back to where you left off. And with the fact I started college as well during this time...yeah, it was a pain.

So here is what is going to happen.

*There will be shorter chapters, and there will be omakes.

-How short? I won't be doing 5,000 words or something I doubt I could get that far with a chapter that short. But the chapters just won't be HUGE anymore, that is it.

-What will the omakes be? They will be mini chapters that will deal with Bleach characters interacting with the Soul Eater world and Vice Versa. I am doing this because I am sure people want to see more Bleach characters (Shinigami, Visards, Arrancars, and Residents of Karakura town) but I won't be able to fit them all in the story. Now there will still be Bleach characters appearing in the story, but this will be for characters that I honestly have no idea how I could fit them in otherwise and would love to see them in Soul Eater.

These characters can include (but are not limited to):

-The Senor Captains: Commander Yamamoto, Captain Unohana, Captain Shunsui, and Captain Ukitake.

-Harribel and her girls, Mila Rose, Sun Sun, and Apachi (Ichigo has never meet them to my knowledge so them appearing in the story would make no sense but same reason as above).

-The Fullbringers and Vandenreich (Because at this point, I want to use the Soul Eater plot as a basis for this story and not Bleach's although I do want these characters to appear in some form)

-Any notable characters from the Bleach Movies (because I may think of something like having Senna screw around in Death City with Ichigo for example).

This may change fro a few of these characters (besides the Fullbringers, Vandenreich, and movie characters, that will never change) if I can think of something interesting, but at the moment at least these characters will most likely stay in these Omakes and not appear in the real story. Still, we will see later on.

And concerning the Omakes, who would you like to see in the first one?

So yeah, after the next chapter expect to see one or two omakes before another chapter.

**Next Time:** What happens when Ichigo is brought up to speed on the situation concerning the Uncanny sword? How will he react when he learns the true relation between Tsubaki and their target? And what can stop him when Ichigo's rage is unleashed?!


	10. Battle of The Souls

"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"_-Hollow/Weapon Form talking

**"Fight!"**-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name

* * *

><p>Rain.<p>

Why did it have to be rain?

It could snow, hail, it could even be a tornado...but why did it have to rain?

**Chapter #10: Battle of the Souls**

The village was silent, the recent battle must have scared off anyone who was willing to stick around. The rain was the only source of sound, reminding everyone that they had not pasted on to the next life...yet.

BlackStar was still there, his body covered in a few cuts and wounds but he seemed fine overall. Ryoku was still unconscious, no change there. Ichigo was there of course, having arrived just moments ago and still processing the situation in front of him. Having killed the hollow in the forest, the young Vizard had rushed back to the village but to his surprise it wasn't battle that he had returned to...but silence.

And Tsubaki? She was sitting in front of them both, acting as if she was asleep. Her eyes were closed and she was gripping a strange black sword.

"BlackStar...what happened?" Something was wrong here, something was extremely wrong here. Ichigo may still be a bit new to the DWMA and its activities, but even he could tell that something was off and BlackStar was the only one who could ease his troubled mind.

BlackStar looked over his shoulder and finally noticed his fellow student, "Took you sweet ass long enough didn't you? I knew I should have been the one to kill that big monster, I would have gotten it done in no time!"

"BlackStar! What the Hell happened!?" Ichigo was in no mood for BlackStar's showboating attitude.

The blue haired ninja simply shrugged, "I beat the hell out of the Demon Blade after he possessed that annoying kid," he pointed at the unconscious form of Ryoku, "And then Tsubaki went inside the sword to fight the bastard head on, its her fight now."

"And you're just sitting here...why?" Ichigo asked, he was not liking where this was going at all.

"She wanted to this on her own, and so she is." BlackStar sounded like he knew what exactly what was going on (despite the fact that he didn't). Ichigo though seemed even more confused, this is what happens when you leave your teammates to go kill a giant monster in the woods. You miss out on important information.

Ichigo looked at Tsubaki and then the sword before it finally clicked, "So you expect me to just sit here and wait to see what happens!?" BlackStar nodded, that was exactly what he intended to do. He trusted Tsubaki, he knew Ichigo did as well, so hopefully it wouldn't take too long before-

"No."

The young ninja's smile dropped, "What do you mean 'No'?"

Ichigo's knuckles started to turn white, he was gripping them a bit too hard. "I won't just sit here on the sidelines, watching as my friend fights for her life..."

"What are you talking about? Tsubaki's fighting _inside_ the Demon Blade! There is nothing you can do but watch." It's true that BlackStar wasn't any happier with the situation than Ichigo was, but what could they do? He wasn't as skilled a meister as Maka was so there wasn't really anything he could do...right?

"I don't care..."

BlackStar just grumbled at that attitude, still he couldn't help but admire his stubbornness. Maybe if he was that stubborn then one day he could truly surpass GO-"...but I'm going to end this, right here, right now."

BlackStar stared at Ichigo, who was walking towards Tsubaki with a dark aura starting to resonate around him. Now this was just starting to piss him off, what was he going to do? Shake Tsubaki awake and crush the Demon Blade in his hands? That would be just stupid. Trying to get past his annoyance (or maybe it was a headache due to all the blows to the head recently) BlackStar tried to convince Ichigo to see the truth one more time.

"Dude, there is nothing you or I can do. If I! The all mighty BlackStar can't do anything, then there is no way in hell you could. So knock it off already, we might as well just sit here and wait for Tsubaki to finish this by hersel-"

"Shut **Up!**"

Everything went quiet. BlackStar never saw Ichigo this mad before, even during their fight back at the academy Ichigo wasn't this made. Oh he was mad that is for sure, but this was something else. He was concerned for Tsubaki of course but he trusted her...Ichigo however looked downright insulted at the idea of just letting her handle this.

Why? Why was he so set on helping her?

"The last time I stood on the sidelines...a lot of people got hurt." Ichigo's tone darkened, "I saw an innocent girl get impaled, her closest friend traumatized, and everyone else? I saw people I consider my friends and allies get torn apart like it was nothing..."

The air started to get heavy. The rain started to fall even faster, as if gravity itself had been enhanced. A dark pressure started to gather around the young shinigami, his reiatsu growing thick and heavy. Rage tends to be a powerful emotion when a shinigami is convened and at the moment, that is an emotion that Ichigo was overwhelmed with.

"...and all of that happened...while I just stood there and **WATCHED!**" The ground nearly cracked, the force of Ichigo's reiatsu was overwhelming the world around him. BlackStar was surprisingly unaffected though...

Rage was just bursting from the shinigami. He would never allow the Gotei 13's battle with Aizen to repeat itself, never again. But why was BlackStar so willing then? How could he just sit there while his partner was fighting for her life? Was he that self-centered? No, he wasn't. Ichigo may not like BlackStar that much but he knew that the kid was not that kind of person. He would risk his life for his friends, even if he acted like a complete dumb-ass while doing so.

So why? Why was he just sitting there?

Ichigo glared at the young ninja, "Why are you, her meister just sitting there?! Why are you so calm when she is in a position that could end up getting her killed?!"

Silence took hold of the village, the only noise that could be heard was the sound of the rain. The two student gazed at each other, their eyes communicating their opposite positions. But at the end of it BlackStar sighed, his gaze becoming a bit glazed as he started to recall a very special memory.

"When I first came to the DWMA, I made a grand speech to everyone. One that described how great I am, how I would become greater than god..." BlackStar couldn't help but grin at that memory, the vision of a younger version of himself standing atop the school while shouting to everyone that stood below him. It was one hell of a moment for him.

BlackStar looked to the sky, the rain gently falling on his face, "By the time I was done everyone was gone, I guess they just couldn't handle how much of a star I was." He chuckled a bit, "But she stayed, Tsubaki stayed and listened to the whole thing."

"That was the day we became partners..." BlackStar's eyes became focused, serious once more, "She stayed by me and now, its my turn to wait for till the end of her performance."

Ichigo understood now, he understood BlackStar's reason for just sitting there. Why he was so calm in all of this despite the fact that she could die in this situation, but could Ichigo do the same? Could he ignore the danger and sit by and watch?

Not a chance. With his previous experiences in this type of situation and his protective nature, Ichigo just couldn't stand by and watch this situation unfold on its own. He had to do something, anything would be better in his opinion that just sitting around and waiting. Walking past BlackStar, Ichigo approached Tsubaki, prepared to do anything to end this battle.

"But..." Ichigo stopped, turning his attention back to the ninja.

"Everyone needs an assistant during their performance..." A real smile gracing the kid's face, " So why don't you go help her prepare for the big show?"

Reading between the lines was never Ichigo's strong suit but, this was something he could easily understand. So the question was now...how was he going to actually help? Taking a seat next to Tsubaki, Ichigo focused his mind on the matter at hand.

_'Guys? Any ideas?' _Ichigo called into his inner world, hoping that his allies could offer some sort of advice.

_"..."_

_'Hello? Old Man? Are either of you two there?'_

A very loud and annoyed voice suddenly rang though Ichigo's head, _"Shut up King! We are thinking here!"_Giving them a few more minutes while the ringing stopped Ichigo was finally contacted by Old Man Zangetsu with an idea.

**"Ichigo, Tsubaki seems to be battling the Demon blade in his own inner world correct?"**

Going off of BlackStar's explanation and the fact that no one was home in Tsubaki's head, that seemed like the logical explanation. How else could Tsubaki be fighting the Demon sword but going to the Sword's own soul ad fighting him there?

**"From what I'm getting, the two of them are currently engaged in a tug of war so to speak, where the victor will claim and absorb the loser's soul into themselves." **Now that was an outcome that Ichigo really didn't like, the idea of Tsubaki losing her soul to anything was a terrible thought.

_'And this helps me...how?'_

**"She was able to enter his inner world by resonating with the Demon Sword's soul, if you do the same to her then perhaps you will be able to manifest yourself inside their battleground in a similar manor"**_. _Now that was a good idea, this would allow Ichigo to engage the Demon Blade personally. But there does seem to be one major issue.

_'Um Zangetsu...while your idea is great and all...I have no idea how to resonate with a weapon.'_

That was mostly true. Besides Zangetsu, Ichigo has never really had a chance or a reason to try and resonate his soul with anyone else. Zangetsu has always been enough when he joined the DWMA so there was never a time to try anything with a suitable weapon partner. Hell, while in his shinigami form Ichigo didn't even know if the process was even possible for him.

Ichigo didn't miss Zangetsu sigh however, **"Ichigo, resonating your soul will not be that difficult. The bond a Meister and Weapon have is actually quite similar to a Zanpakuto and their shinigami." **Ichigo honestly doubted that, **"Just calm yourself ad focus, try to make yourself link up Tsubaki. You can feel her reiatsu, go forward and match it with your own."**

_'Oh yes, be calm and match hers...you make it sound so easy...'_

Zangetsu wasn't amused by Ichigo's comment, **"You do realize that I can still hear you right?"**

_'Yeah, I know. You were meant to hear that!' _Ichigo retorted.

_"Burn!"_ Ichigo's hollow shouted, interrupting their conversation.

**"Quite You!"**/_'Shut Up!'_ Both Ichigo and Zangetsu shouted, causing the hollow to laugh even harder.

With that said, Ichigo got to quick work on making his soul to Tsubaki's. Easy to say, it was hard as hell. Not only did Ichigo have a much larger soul and little control over it, but he also had to tune it to Tsubaki's. But at least there was something positive about all of this, Tsubaki's soul wavelength was surprisingly accepting. Maybe it was because she was so kind and gentle...or maybe it was due to the fact that Ichigo and BlackStar had very similar wavelengths on some level.

Either way, eventually Ichigo finally connected their two souls together. It wasn't nearly as strong as a Meister's bond with their weapon partner, but it was good enough for Ichigo's task. As his hold on the world around him started to fade, Ichigo gave one last look to BlackStar before passing out.

BlackStar couldn't help but chuckle at that, "Heh, jackass..."

**-Masamune's Inner world-**

Empty...the world felt empty.

It's not like visiting other people's inner worlds has ever been a hobby of Ichigo's but the moment he entered this one, it felt...wrong. If Ichigo tried to describe his own inner world then it would be a large city, filled to the brim with mystery and danger. Yet at its center you could feel a warm light, a warmth that would make you feel like nothing could hurt you, like you were being watched over by a knight or something.

But this place? It felt...dead.

It didn't help that the world looked like it was nothing but water. It reminded Ichigo of that time where his inner world transformed into a flooded version of Karakura town. The Demon Blade's world however lacked anything else, there was just water and strange stick figure shaped creatures sticking out of the water.

Other than that, nothing.

That wasn't the only thing Ichigo noticed however. The moment Ichigo appeared in this realm his appearance had changed a bit. His hair was noticeably longer, he was a bit taller, and Zangetsu looked a bit different as well. While it retained its cleaver-like shape, the sword had grown in size slightly, the cloth that covered the blade's handle was pitch black now, and was even covering his entire hand along with the lower portion of his arm. It reminded Ichigo of his inner hollow's version of the sword, but the blade itself remained its normal coloring.

Besides Zangetsu's shikai apperence, he looked exactly like he did after he learned the _Final Getsuga Tenshou_ (Lacking ripped sleeve and chain around his arm for obvious reason though).

_'Guys? Whats going on?'_ Zangetsu and his inner hollow didn't answer however, causing Ichigo a bit of concern.

Instead of simply answering through their mental link, Ichigo was nearly surprised when he saw a cloud of black reiatsu gather next to him. The energy shifted around for a few seconds before finally taking shape as a tall middle-aged man in a black cloak and orange sunglasses. Zangetsu had arrived with Ichigo in the Demon Blade's inner world.

The Zanpakuto looked at his surroundings for a few seconds before taking a glance at his partner. Letting out a little chuckle, Zangetsu couldn't help but grin at Ichigo's expression. He was as some would put it, 'flabbergasted' or utterly shocked to say the least.

**"Come now Ichigo, you have entered another person's inner world. Are you so surprised that I was able to follow you here as well?" **Zangetsu's words seemed to snap Ichigo out of his shocked state.

Not taking too kindly to his Zanpakuto's smirk, Ichigo gestured towards his change in appearance,"Okay then...can you tell me whats going on then?"

**"Ichigo, you are in your purest form here. There is nothing here that is suppressing your power here, you are unrestrained."** Zangetsu explained, Ichigo actually grinning a bit once he understood the news. **"Although, you are likely going to have a nasty headache once you return to your body however."**

Zangetsu had to repress his laughter after hearing Ichigo groan. He had just gotten over one power overload induced hangover, he didn't want to deal with another already! Still it was nice to feel free for a while longer, especially since one particular negative effect was absent at the moment.

You see, whenever Ichigo removes that seal his power is restored but Zangetsu and his hollow...they vanish. Why? Neither of them know the reason since the _Final Getsuga Tenshou_ no longer applied to the situation, but it still wasn't a pleasant feeling for either of them. Still, now that Zangetsu could manifest himself while Ichigo was unrestrained...this was rather nice. Thinking about it however...if he could appear, does that mean that the other could as well?

Sensing his partner's unrest, Zangetsu quickly set Ichigo's mind at ease. **"The hollow has promised that he would not make himself known, a little too much madness in this realm could be dangerous..."**

Tossing someone like his inner hollow into the inner world of a Weapon that is on its way to becoming a Kishin? Yeah, that could be a bad thing.

**"But Ichigo, didn't you have a reason for coming here?"** And with that, Zangetsu disappeared in a cloud of black reiatsu once more, leaving Ichigo alone once again.

Grumbling a quick thanks, Ichigo began to focus on finding his friend. Seeing how this was someone's inner world, you would expect that it would be quite simple to find someone since at this very moment there was only three people residing in it. But...there was something wrong, something else inside this place.

It was like this place was filled with tormented souls, the souls that the Demon Blade had consumed during its path to becoming a kishin. But even then, there was something else. A spirit, unlike anything Ichigo had ever felt before. It was dark, menacing, and it was...odd.

Ichigo made a mental note to avoid that one...

With that in mind, Ichigo continued his search. Along with how _wrong_ this place felt, the young vizard was shocked to notice how _large _this place actually was. It just kept on going, it was like the endless barren wasteland that never seemed to end. But despite that, Ichigo used his enhanced speed to traverse this dark land. With that said, Ichigo did soon find the location of his friend and the target of their mission.

And boy...did he regret it.

In the middle of an open bed of water was Tsubaki. Ichigo hadn't known her for that long but she seemed nice, she seemed like a very caring individual. She even seemed like someone who could be a great friend for Ichigo if he got to know her better. Knowing that...the pain that Ichigo felt when he saw the scene before him spiked straight through his heart.

Because, standing in front of Ichigo was Tsubaki..who was currently being impaled in multiple places by an unknown figure in front of her.

The figure appeared to be a young man, one who was a few years older than his opponent. He was wearing a fairly large cloak that hid most of his tall appearance, although Ichigo could see some bandages tired around his arms. In his hand was a sword, one with a black blade and a bandage-wrapped hilt.

The boy had a very sickly appearance, his skin a very pale color along with a few lines that were actually not wrinkles marking his face. His eyes were actually quite a sight however, as they were black with a red center to them...which reminded Ichigo of a hollow in a way. Getting a look at his face however, Ichigo noticed that this man looked quite similar to Tsubaki...why though?

By taking into account the figure's appearance, Ichigo couldn't help but notice what was surrounding the figure. Twisting and wrapping themselves around the figure were these shadow-like creatures, which were the actual sources of the blades that were piercing the other DWMA student.

It appeared that neither of them had noticed the Vizard approach as the figure that Ichigo guessed was the Uncanny Sword continued to speak, "Do you have anything to say in the end?"

Tsubaki did not reply, as the wounds she now possessed only caused her to cough in return. Finding no pity at his opponents suffering, the Uncanny sword positioned his blade towards Tsubaki, planning to run her through once more.

"You're no more than a Tsubaki, the "Scentless Flower." The man muttered, "No expression, even in the end..." Drawing his arm back, the fiend prepared to end the life of the prey before him.

Too bad Ichigo wasn't going to have any of that.

Leaping into action, Ichigo dove between Tsubaki and the Uncanny Sword. Letting out one strong swipe with Zangetsu, Ichigo sliced through the blades that were impaling his friend. Ichigo then caught Tsubaki with his free arm before swinging Zangetsu around once more, only barley missing the Uncanny Sword as his foe dove backwards to avoid the attack.

Tsubaki was of course surprised by the sudden appearance of her fellow student, completely dumbfounded on how he had joined her and her foe in a place such as this. Ignoring her injuries for the moment Tsubaki voiced her confusion to the orange haired shinigami,"Ichigo...how?..."

Looking down at her Ichigo gave a small shrug, "Eh, I'm complicated." With that out-of-the-way, Ichigo focused his gaze on the figure standing across from them.

"Is this him? The Uncanny Sword?" Tsubaki nodded her head slowly, her wounds still effecting her to a certain degree. With his guess ringing true, Ichigo glared at the Uncanny Sword, who in turn gave Ichigo a very cold yet emotionless stare. Without any words between them, the Uncanny Sword dashed towards Ichigo with his blade held high.

**_-Clang-_**

Despite the suddenness of the attack, Ichigo easily brought Zangetsu up in time to block the strike. Sparks erupted from the blades as they clashed against each other, the strength of the two combatants not swaying in the slightest. The Uncanny Sword leaned in closer, making sure not to leave any weaknesses in his stance while doing so.

"Given that she just asked you my first question, I shall skip it for the moment" The Uncanny Sword spoke, "Still, who are you?"

Ichigo merely shrugged, "Ichigo Kurosaki. Still, I have yet to get your name as well. I am getting tired of calling you 'The Uncanny Sword', you don't seem that uncanny anyway." The Uncanny Sword merely raised an eyebrow at the question.

"Masamune Nakatsukasa." That answer was something that surprisingly caught Ichigo off guard, for he was quite familiar with that last name, for it belonged to the lady that was current resting in Ichigo's free arm.

_'Nakatsukasa? But that's...are these two related or something?'_

Catching the confused look on Ichigo's face, Masamune decided to elaborate even further on the subject. "The girl you are currently holding is my younger sister, who was granted nearly all the weapon forms from our clan..."

The air around Masamune suddenly started to thicken, the shadow-like creatures spouting from his shadows once more. "...weapon forms that should have been **_MINE!_**"

But all of this was ignored by Ichigo, who was currently trying to process the information that he had just been given.

_'Older...brother...'_

This sickly, soul devouring monster...was the older brother of Tsubaki? Who was perhaps one of the kindest people Ichigo had met since he had arrived in Death city. That this man, who claimed to be her older brother had caused such wounds to his younger sister? To attack her? Harm her?! He _**DARES!?**_

It was at this time that Tsubaki had noticed a change in Ichigo.

His brown eyes, which normally held a bit of darkness lurking in the background had suddenly become engulfed in a hateful expression, his gaze acting if it could burn through the gates of hell if necessary. His scowl had transformed into a frightening sneer, all of his anger being transferred straight toward her older brother. And this aura, this 'killing intent'...Ichigo was producing so much that it was making it hard to breath for the young weapon.

"Tsubaki..." Having been brought out of her own thoughts by Ichigo's cold voice, Tsubaki gave the speaker her full attention,"...do you think you can manage on your own despite those wounds?"

Knowing how much more durability she had while in this world Tsubaki nodded in return. Having her answer, Ichigo gently laid the young ninja to the ground, allowing her to rest herself on the inner world's surface. With her out of the danger zone for the moment, Ichigo turned his darkened gaze on Masamune, whose eyes gave an indication how far he had taken into his insanity.

"So..." Masamune started to grow concerned as he felt himself being pushed backwards by his foe's increasing strength, "After everything you just did, harming her, belittling her, and attempting to kill her...you still call yourself Tsubaki's older brother?"

Masamune said nothing, he was far more concerned with the fact that he was losing control of this duel before it had already began. But that small concern quickly exploded into complete and utter fear as the infamous 'Uncanny Sword' saw blue and black fire start to rise from his foe's blade. Taking his gaze off the sword and to its wielder, Masamune was shocked at what he saw. Gone were the brown eyes that were previously boring into his skull, now there were two new eyes staring at him...eyes that were black and yellow.

"You don't _**deserve that**** TITLE****!**_" Releasing his pent-up rage Ichigo rushed forward with Zangetsu in hand, batting away Masamune with a single swing.

Overwhelmed by his foe's power, the Uncanny sword quickly found himself being flung through the air and unceremoniously slamming into the ground of his inner world more times than he can count. After finally coming to a stop, Masamune looked up to his shock to see Ichigo diving toward him with a burning hate in his eyes.

"Big Brothers are supposed to be there for their siblings!"

Savagely and without mercy, Ichigo swung his sword in a beserker-like fashion. Masamune was barely able to put up even a pitiful defense against his foe's savage attacks. Back and forth, up and down, Masamune explored nearly every passage he could think of but nothing was enough to break Ichigo's offensive march.

"They are meant to care for their sisters!" Bringing Zangetsu upward from the ground, Ichigo deflected Masamune's sword and caused the swordsman to break his stance. Taking advantage of this, Ichigo grabbed the would-be Kishin by the throat and tossed him across the landscape.

"To love them!" Landing on his feet this time, Masamune quickly tried to make use of the distance between him and his opponent. Summoning his shadow puppets in massive numbers, Masamune took a sideways stance and lifted his sword to his eye level.

With Ichigo slowly making his way over to him, Masamune shoved his sword forward as his shadow puppets responded in unison.

**_"Puppet Thrust!"_**

As Masamune drove his sword forward towards Ichigo, all the shadow puppets he summoned did the same. This resulted in all of the limbs of these puppets suddenly extending in length, the sharp points rushing towards the orange haired shinigami. Ichigo made no move to dodge the spikes as they finally made contact, casing a small explosion in water due to their impact.

'_Got him' _Masamune grinned.

But that grin did not last long. Before the water even died down, Masamune saw a speeding blur running across one of his shadow puppet's arms. Looking closer, he was shocked to see Ichigo calmly running across the very thing that had tried to kill him seconds earlier. Rage boiling within him due to this embarrassment, Masamune twisted his sword in a rage.

_**"Split Branches!"**_

Following their master once more, the puppets suddenly twisted their limbs in a similar fashion. But unlike last time this had a different result, as once this was done dozens of spikes suddenly emerged from the puppet's arms, creating a volley of spikes posed to impale their target. Unfortunately in his rage Masamune had announced this attack out loud, which was unneeded and only allowed Ichigo to counter this attack with ease.

With his already impressive speed, Ichigo was able to easily dodge the incoming spikes and merely hopped to a different arm whenever a new spike came toward him. With that said, the distance between the two foes quickly shrunk in size and Masamune soon found himself once again in range of an infuriated Ichigo.

"And above all else..."

Unleashing another slash with Zangetsu, Ichigo sent Masamune tumbling backwards once more as he was barely able to deflect this strike with his (now chipped) sword. But this was what Ichigo was planning. Bringing Zangetsu over his head, Masamune and even Tsubaki could only watch as both blue and black energy suddenly started to spread across the blade's surface.

"They _**PROTECT** **their SISTERS**_**!**"

With untold ferocity, Ichigo unleashed a massive arc of reiatsu towards the so-called 'rightful air of the Nakatsukasa clan'. It was gigantic, outclassing nearly anything Ichigo had unleashed since he came to this part of the world. And at the center of it was a frightening image, a white skull-like mask with two horns on each side of its head. Its raging yellow eyes burned into the soul (or whats left of it) of its target, the mask's jaws opened wide as the wave of reiatsu consumed its target.

_"Getsuga Tenshou." _

Ichigo's cold words was all that remained after his attack made contact. The responding explosion from his technique created a massive effect on Masamune's inner world. Tidal waves were generated and the responding displacement of water was quite large, perhaps if the world wasn't entirely made of water then the attack may have even reached the bottom of the ocean.

Tsubaki looked on in shock and even a bit of horror at the apparent demise of her brother. But Ichigo? His gaze never changed or shifted, rage was still burning in his eyes. Even as one of the tidal waves rushed towards the young shinigami all Ichigo responded with was a slight growl. When the wave neared less than a few yards from the boy, a single swipe of his Zanpakuto sliced open the wave and allowed Ichigo and Tsubaki (who had been sitting a good distance behind Ichigo in conveniently the same angle) to pass safely through the water.

But as the water started to settle, Ichigo could barley contain his annoyance. "Are you serious?"

Standing in the distance was Masamune, who had somehow survived his Getsuga. Apparently the boy had summoned all of his shadow puppets to his side the moment Ichigo had launched his technique. Covering their master in a protective shell made of their own bodies, the puppets took the full force of the technique and protected their master.

This however also meant the demise of most of these puppets as Ichigo's **Getsuga Tenshou** burned most of them to ashes, leaving a pitiful few remaining under Masamune's command. He could of course make more of them, but the power he used to create so many had put massive stress on his inner world as a result.

So with his foe out of breath and rage still burning in his soul, Ichigo swung Zangetsu behind his back and prepared to charge head first into the slaughter. But before he could put one foot forward the young man felt a hand grasp his arm, stopping his assault. Turning his attention from the target of his wrath, Ichigo matched eyes with the person he had come to protect in the first place.

"Ichigo...thats enough." Tsubaki's voice was firm, but it wasn't void of the fear that she previously processed.

Shocked, Ichigo tried to state his case, "Enough?! This Bastard deserves more than this! He deserves-" Tsubaki however would not allow him to continue any further.

"Ichigo..." Tsubaki's voice was filled with regret, "I came to the school so I could eventually stop my brother..." Memories with her brother filled her mind, the memories from a time where she loved her brother dearly and even admired him enough to suggest the things he liked in order to please him. These were memories she loved, of a time that she wished she could return to. But these weren't the only memories that returned to her. They started to turned dark, the memories of her brother's change into the monster that he was now and even his painful remarks from earlier in their battle. They hurt so much, coming from a person that Tsubaki admired and loved so dearly...

But these remarks also sparked something within her, "...I can't just let you kill him like this, its something I...have to do myself."

Ichigo listened closely to Tsubaki's words, reading the emotions she put forth through them. The sadness of what her mission would have her do, the love she had previously and still has for her brother despite his harsh words and actions, and finally the fire that has ignited in her soul. Despite Ichigo's current rage at Tsubaki's _brother,_ he could not deny the determination that hid behind the sadness in her tone.

Releasing a sigh Ichigo slowly returned Zangetsu to his back and stood aside, allowing the young girl to processed.

Tsubaki's eyes widened a considerable amount at this action. After seeing the utter rage he had unleashed against her brother, Tsubaki had not expected Ichigo to simply back down so easily. Putting up a small smile, Tsubaki materialized her **Chain Scythe **form and began to walk towards her brother. But before she got too far away, the young weapon turned back to her friend with a kind expression.

"Ichigo...thank you." And with that said, Tsubaki charged forward into battle, fully intent on bringing an end to her brother's tortured existence.

Masamune, who was still recovering from the explosive attack that nearly snuffed out his soul, did not take too kindly to the change in opponents. Despite his wounds Masamune let out an annoyed huff, "Again? You of all people seek to challenge me again you wretch? Didn't you learn from our previous encounter?"

Tsubaki said nothing and continued onward, her gaze never weakening and her expression never faltering for a single moment.

Masamune twitched at the sight of his little sister's gaze, "Whats with that look...are you trying to be brave or something!? You are nothing but a pathetic flower! Without substance, without a scent, you only have that pathetic appearance and falsity about you! You are nothi-"

"You're wrong!" Tsubaki exclaimed and interrupted her brother's words, her thoughts imminently going to more to a more positive place. Her mind thought of her friends, BlackStar, and even Ichigo, the one who just invaded a hostel soul just to help her. These people are the ones that cared for her and she did the same to them.

"Your wrong! you're wrong, you're wrong!" Tsubaki defiantly repeated, "I won't mother you anymore! I'm going to stop you, brother!"

Griping her **Chain Scythe**, Tsubaki quickly transformed it into a small blade, the **Ninja Sword**. With determination burning in her eyes, the young ninja made her case clear to her brother, "Brother, please, feel in your soul...how _serious_ I am!"

Masamune looked unconvinced, his gaze still cold and unmoving. "Useless. You put up a brave front, but you are still a humdrum flower with no fragrance."

"You're Wrong!" Tsubaki would have no more of her brother's damning statements, "I won't let you call me a humdrum flower any longer!"

Flashes of people close to her began racing though Tsubaki's mind. Maka, Soul, Kid, Patty, Liz, BlackStar, and even Ichigo, everyone she had grown to know during her time at the academy. "People once made me realize something!"

"Camellias...camellias...do have a fragrance!"

Somehow these words...this declaration snapped something inside Masamune. His eyes burned with an intense hatred and even insanity, the madness of his journey into becoming a kishin finally taking hold. His face morphed and twisted into a demonic expression, his soul wavelength exploding forth in an intense force. Water burst forth around him as he roared in rage, creating pillars of water in his wake. With his rage pouring into his inner world, Masamune called upon the remaining shadow puppets under his command and launched into battle. The puppet's limbs quickly extended with fierce ferocity, all of them homing in on a single target.

Tsubaki however didn't back down. With a quick flex of her knife, the female ninja dove into the battle. Her quick movement easily dodged one puppet's attack and rushed right into the others. With the speed and grace of a person who had trained their life for this task, Tsubaki began to slice and dice her way towards her older brother. Even Ichigo was impressed by her movements, a boy who had seen the likes of the Flash Goddess Yoruichi and Byakuya Kuchiki stood in silence as his ally showed off her skills in the art of combat.

"Damn...nice moves." Ichigo whistled.

Like a figure skater upon the ice, Tsubaki gracefully raced across the watery landscape that made up her brother's inner world. With the shadow puppet's limbs raced towards her, Tsubaki displayed a remarkable reaction time as she sliced away at the limbs, cutting them to bits. Upward and downward, side to side, anyway they came from Tsubaki either sliced them in half or simply ducked out of their path.

This however did not mean the end of their battle as Tsubaki soon jumped high into the air in an effort to more easily dodge her brother's attacks. But Masamune would not allow that to happen. He quickly instructed his puppets to direct their efforts skyward towards his sister, but Tsubaki was prepared for such a tactic. As one of the puppet's limbs came barreling towards her, Tsubaki twisted her body and escaped her impalement while also driving her blade into the responding appendage. Dragging her arm with significant force, Tsubaki cleaved the limb asunder and continued to do so to the others as she made her way back to the ground.

With his sister rapidly approaching his position and the uselessness assistance that his puppets had provided, Masamune roared into the sky with the rage of a beast. Readying both their blades, brother and sister gazed into each others eyes as the distance between each other vanished. With a responding roar from each combatant, the members of the Nakatsukasa clan clashed for one last time.

"AAAAH!"

**"AAAAAGH!"**

**-_CLANG!-_**

At the moment their blades clashed a massive shock-wave was unleashed upon Masamune's inner world. Such a wave of energy completely dissolved what remained of Masamune's shadow puppets and even cleared away the sickly appearance that polluted the inner world. Ichigo however was completely ignored by the wave, as if it meant him no harm.

But at the center of the shock-wave was brother and sister, having one final moment together before the end of their time together.

Tsubaki sat there on her knees, her eyes closed since their clash. Running through her however was her brother's sword, directly in the center of her chest. But why wasn't she dead?...such a wound even here in a clash such as this should mean the end for her...unless...

"You've shown me...what your feelings are." Masamune's voice echoed through the darkness, "Is the camellia blossom...a flower with no fragrance?"

Opening her eyes at the sound of her brother's voice, the young ninja gazed at everything before her. The clear sky that had replaced the darkness of the inner world, the clear blue sea, and her brother...or what remained. Floating over his sister was what remained of the Uncanny Sword. Their clash had left a much more devastating result on the young man. All that remained of him now was his upper body, floating above his dear sister.

His face had been altered as well, it was no longer the monstrous creature that the devouring of souls had transformed him into. Staring back at Tsubaki was the kind brother that she remembered. His voice no longer held the dark hatred that it formally had when he spoke to her but a kindness that was far overdue, "No. Once I touched your soul, I realized that..."

"Brother..." Tsubaki quietly said, the sadness of the impending situation coming ever closer.

"It's a nice fragrance." And with that, Masamune vanished from the world. His remains shifted, the energy of his remains reforming themselves into a small red orb, a kishin egg. Said egg found itself in the palm of his dear sister, who gazed at the soul within her grasp.

Tsubaki gazed at the soul in hands for a few seconds before embracing it, the full impact of her actions finally taking hold.

"...Brother..." Tsubaki sadly muttered to herself, the grief of her brother's demise at her own hands overtaking her. Not only had she killed her brother, but Tsubaki had witnessed her brother finally regain his sanity...during his final moments. Why? Why did it have to end this way? Why...why did he have to die?

As tears threatened to fall, Tsubaki suddenly felt a strong hand rest on her shoulder. With her eyes still resisting the stinging sensation of the tears still threatening, Tsubaki looked over to the source and found her eyes meeting a very different looking Ichigo. While his appearance was unchanged, his expression was something she had never seen before. Like the rage beforehand, there was an emotion in his eyes that the young ninja had never seen before. But unlike the rage from before, this one had a very different meaning.

There was no hate or destruction in his eyes, but sadness that matched her own and understanding of the position she was in.

"Tsubaki..." Ichigo's tone was not his rough usual one but instead one that matched his expression, understanding, soft, and most of all, dejected. Dropping to one knee so he could stare into her eyes, Ichigo embraced the fragile girl in comforting hug. Allowing the girl to vent her emotions while in his embrace, Ichigo had only one thing to say to her.

"...I'm so sorry..."

**-Later: Back in the Village of Needles-**

So...the last few minutes hadn't been the greatest in BlackStar's opinion. First there were all the annoying villagers, all of which appeared shortly after Ichigo's descent into the Uncanny Sword's soul. They all figured that the recent events were BlackStar's fault due to his clan's reputation and decided to take their anger out on him. BlackStar didn't care of course, he just took their beatings in stride and didn't react to them at all. Still, they were a bit of a pain in the ass.

Next of course was the disappearance of Tsubaki. Sometime after his partner had begun her inner war against the Uncanny Sword BlackStar was shocked to see Tsubaki disappear completely into the Masamune's black sword. At first he was concerned that Tsubaki had lost the duel and become absorbed by the evil being, a idea that struck the young ninja with utter dread. This was of course tossed aside once the Uncanny Sword had refused to awaken as well.

And of course there was still Ichigo...not that BlackStar was worried...right?

Still, all he could do at the moment was await until his friends returned...although he did spend this time endlessly poking the sword in question. Hopefully one of them would respond in a moment or tw-

_~Poof~_

It was at this very moment that the sword that BlackStar had been poking exploded in a cloud of white smoke, knocking the young ninja on his butt for a small moment (And distracting the villagers from their target). Quickly regaining his senses, BlackStar anticipated the reveal of who exactly had returned from the Uncanny Sword's soul. So imagine his relief once the smoke cleared and revealed Tsubaki, completely fine after her intense and emotional rumble.

"I'm back, BlackStar." Tsubaki greeted with a smile.

"Tsubaki..." BlackStar muttered, completely shocked at the sudden appearance of his partner (so were the villagers, not that anyone cared that is).

Tsubaki ignored whatever shock BlackStar had and continued with her cheerful attitude, "I went and saw my brother."

BlackStar quickly regained his attitude by the mention of this. Jumping to his feet, BlackStar quickly put on an arrogant (yet happy) expression on, "You did, huh? Welcome back then, you okay?"

"Yep."

BlackStar wanted to be sure though, "Are you _sure _you're okay?"

"Yea, I'm fine."

BlackStar and Tsubaki continued in silence for a few moments, neither of them saying a thing. In this awkward silence Tsubaki's cheerful attitude started to drop, she was unsure how BlackStar was going to react to her return outside the normal greeting. But that thought was swiftly thrown aside as BlackStar put on a big goofy grin and extended both his arms, "Well then come on! Let your buddy BlackStar give you a hug!"

Tsubaki was shocked for a moment but when BlackStar's words and appearance (still covered in blood due to the beatings the moronic villagers were giving him) sunk in she imminently broke down into tears. Launching herself towards her partner, Tsubaki instantly started to apologize to BlackStar, asking if he was okay and that she was sorry that she dragged him into this mess in the first place. BlackStar just stood there and allowed her to let it all out...not like he was paying attention to her apologizes in the slightest anyway.

Meanwhile while all this was happening, not a single soul noticed Ichigo awaken from his own slumber. Cracking his neck, Ichigo gazed at his fellow students and even adapted a small smile of his own due to the touching scene. His gaze however soon turned to the villagers, who looked more than ready to continue 'punishment' of the one they thought responsible for this entire situation.

Releasing a bit of his spiritual pressure (enough for them to notice and but not Tsubaki and BlackStar), Ichigo gave them a clear warning to **NOT **do anything stupid. It seemed to work for the most part, so when their little reunion came to a close Ichigo made himself known to the duo.

BlackStar was the first to see Ichigo arrive, noticing that his orange hair and attire kind of made him stick out like a sore thumb,"And where have you been shithead? Fall asleep or something?" BlackStar may have sounded a bit mad from his words alone, but Ichigo could easily hear the relief hidden behind the kid's voice.

Ichigo just shrugged, "Maybe I had? It's not like you were doing anything better shrimp, hell by how still you were when I arrived I thought you nodded off yourself before I even got here!"

BlackStar looked a bit insulted by that comment, "Is that what you think strawberry?! I'll have you know I could stay awake for months in worse conditions than this!" BlackStar shot back, "You on the other hand? I bet you couldn't last five minutes in a rain storm that was made for washing away mud!?

"Really? You want to test that theory punk?"

"Yeah, bring it on you overgrown fruit basket!"

Tsubaki watched as her two teammates yelled at each other for a few more minutes. While she normally would have considered stopping such an argument, she just couldn't bring herself to this time. Both of these two helped her complete her long-awaited mission and she was just so happy that they both were okay...and besides, it's not like they were hitting each other yet, right?

Too bad this cheerful moment couldn't last for her...one of the villagers made sure of that.

**-WACK-**

"AGH! Son of A-!" BlackStar shouted, rubbing the large bump that now adorned the back of his head. Eyes glowing a bit red with his anger, BlackStar turned his head and saw one of the villagers standing right behind him. It was a fairly pathetic looking kid with a 2x4 in his hands. This guy was actually the same one that tried to hit Tsubaki while she was occupied with her brother. BlackStar had scared the guy almost shitless when he tried it,but it seems that he hadn't learned his lesson.

So maybe it was time for his own remedial lesson?

"You ruined our** MOMENT!**" Bringing his fist forward, BlackStar smacked the moronic villager square in the face and sent him flying in a bloody pulp.

Tsubaki looked on in utter shock at the turn of events and Ichigo? Well, he was a bit disappointed that he didn't get a chance to knock some sense into the kid as well.

This of course resulted in the kids mom launching herself at her 'baby' boy and the other villagers becoming even more hostile, calling for the trio to get the hell out of their village and stuff such as that. BlackStar's response? He merely told them all to bite his ass and get over all the crap that his family had done (which Ichigo still had no idea what was going on concerning that) and it didn't matter to the young ninja in the slightest.

The villagers finally went off the deep end at the last comment and even started to throw things at the trio. It was at this point that the three realized that they had overstayed their welcome and took off towards the village's entrance (with Ichigo grabbing BlackStar during their escape to insure that he didn't do anything stupid on their way out). But as the three students made their way out of the hostile, none of them noticed Ryoku finally awaken from his own bout with unconsciousness.

Gazing at the retreating figures, the boy let a small grin come upon his face.

"I still don't like him...even if he wasn't like the rest of that stupid Star Clan of his."

**-Sometime Later: The DWMA-**

Once again going through a fairly crappy plane ride (Although in Ichigo's opinion it was a much better ride then the first one for some reason) Ichigo, BlackStar, and Tsubaki arrived back at their place of employment and education. Walking though the halls of the school, the trio were on their way to Shinigami-sama's office so they could turn in their report for the successful mission.

But as the three of them finally arrived at the Death Room, Ichigo decided to stay back near the entrance and allow the two partners to give their boss their report on their own. Tsubaki and BlackStar did do most of the work anyway, all Ichigo did (in his opinion) was kill a hollow and soften up Masamune a bit. Nothing too important really.

As the Meister and Weapon made their way towards the center of the Death Room, Tsubaki stopped for a moment and turned to the orange haired Vizard.

"Ichigo...I would just like to thank you for coming with us..." Ichigo raised his eyebrow but said nothing, "...without you there, things could have turned out much worse for BlackStar and me."

Ichigo merely shrugged at Tsubaki's thanks, "Eh, it was nothing. Things wouldn't have been that different without me, all I did was kill a big old monster and that's it."

Tsubaki didn't think it was that simple though, "...but what you did with my brother, how you defended me and fought for me...that's something I have to thank you for." Ichigo once again shrugged it off, he still didn't think it was something she needed to thank him for. It was something that he would have done for anyone in her position, especially if was a relative hurting them...a sibling. Looking at her however, Ichigo noticed that this wasn't the only thing Tsubaki wanted to tell him.

Tsubaki didn't know how to ask this, but it was something that had been bugging her since the incident had originally happened. "...but how you talked to him..." Tsubaki hesitated for a split second, "...why did you act so violently when you learned that he was my brother?"

"Why?" Ichigo let out a tired sigh at the question. This was a subject that Ichigo had really been hoping to avoid since he exploded back during the battle. Hell, it was something he had been avoiding since he first arrived in Death City. But of course, this had to rear its ugly head sooner or later.

"I got so angry because...as a brother, he should have been doing everything in his power to make sure that you were safe and cared for. And yet? He was doing nearly the exact opposite." Ichigo gripped his shoulder's in frustration, "As a brother, he was spitting on an obligation. One that he should have been doing since the day that you were born, but most of all..."

Ichigo briefly hesitated, the reality of his next statement being one that he never wanted to accept. "...he was wasting an opportunity that I no longer have..."

Stunned by his words, Tsubaki was about to question him on this but was cut off when Ichigo turned his back to her and started to walk back toward the door.

"You better get going, BlackStar is about to make a complete ass of himself in front of everyone." Tsubaki quickly spun around due to that statement but instead of seeing BlackStar making a fool of himself, all Tsubaki saw was her Meister calmly (That was actually surprising) waiting for her at a distance.

Turning her attention back to Ichigo, Tsubaki was slightly disappointed to see no trace of her orange haired friend. The young ninja wanted to go find him and ask him about what he meant with that last bit (hoping that it didn't mean what she thought it did), but Tsubaki knew she couldn't just walk away from BlackStar at a moment such as this. This was the first successful mission that they had completed since they had became a team, so it was a big deal for the two of them.

Quickly catching back up to her partner, Tsubaki made a quick mental note to find Ichigo at a later date. After all he had done for her with her brother, Tsubaki wanted to help Ichigo in any way possible...even if it meant comforting him on something that had damaged him in ways that she couldn't even comprehend.

**x-Soul Eater's Soul Reaper-x**

**END OF MISSION:**

**The Uncanny Sword, Masamune has been ELIMINATED.**

**Kishin Egg Collected.**

**Tsubaki: New Form Unlocked, DEMON BLADE mode.**

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

1). Ichigo had full access to his powers when he entered Masamune's inner world. No limiter restricting his powers, he was fully released. So despite the fact that Masamune would have been more powerful in his inner world...a fully released (and pissed off) Ichigo would have been a hell of a challenge to fight.

2). Ichigo is a person who cares about family like it's no one's business. He deeply loved and cared for his family, even if he didn't always show it (which is mostly due to him bottling up his emotions after his mother died). Now knowing that, Ichigo was robbed of his entire family. His mother and Father were killed before his eyes and he even had to be the one to send his own sisters to the Soul Society (meaning that it was more than likely that he would never see them again). So with that injustice in his mind, actually seeing Masamune treat Tsubaki like he did kind of...infuriated Ichigo to the point of murder (and due to the fact that he was sent to kill this guy anyway didn't help). He despised the idea that an older brother, the role he held beforehand would actually treat their younger sister in such a manner (reason be damned) was unforgivable.

3). Ichigo has no idea what happened to the Black Star clan and what their reputation was like. Due to the fact that he got distracted by the hollow in the previous chapter and that there was no moment in the woods like in the anime/manga, the event where BlackStar told his story was avoided. Ichigo will learn about it later, but not at the moment.

4). Remember, at the start of this fic I mentioned that due to the overall power levels between a series like Bleach and Soul Eater, characters in the Soul Eater verse would get upgrades to their abilities so they could keep up with Ichigo on some level. That is basically what happened to Masamune in this chapter, although it didn't help him all that much in the long run.

And for anyone who is up to date with the Bleach manga...wow, what a twist right? At the moment I am unsure if I am going to put that into the story or not. Originally I was going to leave out the more recent manga arcs from Bleach so I could focus on the Soul Eater aspect of this one, but this new twist? Hm...I am considering it, and also? THE FEELS...OMG, the FEELINGS in the most recent chapter...just damn.

So, next will be a short Omake before the real next chapter. I will also be releasing another story that is Transformers and KARAS focused, so if you find that interesting then go ahead and have a look at that, if not then just stay tuned for the next installment!


	11. Omake 1: FOR SCIENCE! PT1

So, her we are. The first of the series of Omakes that will come between chapters from time to time.

"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"_-Hollow/Weapon Form talking/Communications [Radio]

**"Fight!"**-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name

* * *

><p><strong>Omake #1: The Scientific Masters of Horror<strong>

So...its been pretty good morning for Death City's local Vizard when all things were considered.

It was early in the day and Ichigo was on his way to his morning class at the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Wearing a simple pair of jeans and a jacket, Ichigo was happy that nothing especially weird had happened to him while on his way to the academy.

Normally his mornings involved a awkward situation or two with a certain magic wielding black cat, but luckily Ichigo managed to avoid that today by stealth-fully escaping his magical friend, much to her disappointment.

Blair was likely planning on paying him back once school was out...but it wasn't something Ichigo was concerned with at the moment. All he wanted was a nice an peaceful morning to his otherwise chaotic day at school...was that so much to ask for?

But it seems like that was asking a bit too much. As Ichigo made his way through the school's halls he noticed someone running frantically towards him. Squinting his eyes, Ichigo was able to make out a person with red hair and a dark suit. Knowing no one else with such a appearance, Ichigo couldn't help but wonder something...

...why was Spirit running like something was trying to kill him?...

Wait, this is Spirit. When isn't someone trying to kill him or at the least kick his ass for doing some perverted or stupid?

The Death Scythe ran towards the boy in a very unorganized manor before grabbing Ichigo by the front of his jacket. Spirit stared at the young student with a terrified look in his eyes, "Ichigo...you gotta help me..."

Ichigo just returned the gaze with his own uninterested stare, "Spirit, did you piss someone off this morning? Nurse Medusa? Maka?" Ichigo took a brief glance at the man's head before continuing, "Well, it wasn't Lord Death or Maka, or else you would have a giant indent on your head."

Oh sure, Spirit had a habit of making people quite irritated with him on a daily basis but that normally happened around the time classes were over. At this point he would've had more then his fair share of beatings, which is why he normally never left the headmaster's side during the day. But this early in the morning? Now that was a new record.

Spirit quietly shook his head, "No, no, no...its _much_ worse then that!" The man nearly hyperventilating at this point.

"Worse then Maka wanting to bust your head open with one of her books?" Sarcasm was just dripping from his words, "Okay Spirit, what has you so terrified?"

Spirit quickly spun his head back towards where he came running from, as if he was wondering if someone was following him. The man nearly cowering in fear now, Ichigo listened with somewhat of a interest as the Death Scythe started again.

"You're classroom...Stein! He is in there with someone...someone just as creepy as he is...its insane!" Now everyone practically knew about Spirit's current relationship with Professor Stein. The had once been partners during their time as students and Spirit was scared shitless whenever the scientist was around. Hell, when Stein made his return to the DWMA, Spirit rarely left the Death Room for nearly a entire week. Still...this type of fear was a bit extensive for even Spirit.

"You've got to **hide** **me!** I can't take the risk! I still have nightmares about the time Stein caught me in the bathroom and tired to-"

Spirit was cut off however when he heard a nearby door open. Unwilling to take the risk, the adult quickly let go of Ichigo and ran off once more, screaming his head off the entire time as he did so.

Looking over towards the opened door, Ichigo almost laughed when he saw a janitor push a few trash cans into the hallway. Resisting the urge to laugh at the entire situation, Ichigo continued on his way. Its not like it could be that bad right? Stein likely just had some weird assistant or something for today's lecture, no big deal.

**Later:**

Arriving early as usual, Ichigo quietly made his way into his homeroom. With Spirit's words still present in his mind, Ichigo was actually a bit interested in whatever spooked the man. Maybe it was some disgusting creature Stein had created so he could have more hands to work with while he was tearing a creature apart. Perhaps it was the subject itself? Something Stein had created and was now more then willing to tear it apart in the name of science.

Or hell, maybe it was someone else that Spirit had a horrifying past with...like his college roommate or something.

Not caring all that much for either option, Ichigo opened up the door to his class and gazed inside. But what he saw was something much different then what he was expecting.

Filling the entire front section of the room (including the teacher's desk) was all types of machinery. Some looked metallic and old fashion while other were organic and quite disgusting. And of course in the center was Stein, who was standing over something that was covered in a stitched up cloth while another individual worked on it.

Having heard the door open, Stein took his gaze off whatever abomination he was working on and turned towards Ichigo with a smile on his face.

"Ah, good morning!" Stein waved over to his student, "You're just in time to help us set up today's lesson!"

Still not taking his eyes off the disgusting contraptions (which felt oddly familiar) Ichigo hesitated for a moment before responding, "Um...what the hell is all of this Stein?...and what lesson requires all of..._this?_"

Stein seemed absolutely ecstatic at the question present before him (which is never a good thing), "Oh its just fantastic! After you're escapades with those hollows, I have been given permission to teach the other students about other supernatural threats!"

Stein then made a quick gesture towards the dissection table behind him, "So, I contacted someone who has a much larger experience with such creatures and together we will be dissecting such a creature for the entire class to see!"

Disgusted by both the fact that Stein was going to tear a hollow like a lab animal and the idea that Stein actually called someone to help him do the deed, Ichigo couldn't help but wonder...who and the hell would actually help in a project like this?! What kind of sick twisted son of a bitch would actually agree to this, do dissect a hollow in front of a class of students?

Ignoring the dumbstruck (and sickened) expression on his student's face, Stein merely started to turn the massive screw on his head before he continued on, "So, go ahead and take a seat Kurosaki-san. I'm sure we shall be ready began by the time the others arriv-"

**"_Silence!_"** A loud screeching voice erupted from the dissection table.

Turning around, the two of them noticed that the person who had been working on the 'subject' (doing something that Ichigo really didn't want to think about) was now standing straight up and facing them. Taking off the wielding mask he had been wearing (don't ask why), Ichigo's face paled dramatically when he recognized the person.

Giant Gold headdress? **Check**.

Black face paint with white lines? **Check**.

Big white Captain's Haori with big purple collars? **Check**.

Golden Freaking Teeth!? **Check.**

Yep, it was Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

"Oh _hell_..." Ichigo muttered, finally understanding the horror on Spirit's face from earlier.

"I am currently in the middle of prepping the specimen of the procedure so it doesn't explode the moment we began dissecting it," Kurotsuchi hollered at the two, "The last thing I need is you two imbeciles distracting me from my important work! Now get the..."

Mayrui stopped mid -ant when he recognized the orange mess of hair standing next to his partner in Science.

"Kurosaki Ichigo..."The person in question couldn't help but twitch at the tone the Captain used, "Its been quite awhile since we last encountered each other..."

Stein looked rather interested in this new development, "Oh, do you two know each other?"

"Oh indeed, _Kurosaki-san _and I go way back, don't we Kurosaki?" Ichigo could just smell the poison on Mayuri's mention of his name.

Ichigo hadn't said a single thing during this entire exchange but he knew this wouldn't end well...nothing ended well when this guy was involved (or at least that's what the stories Uyru had told him said).

Most wouldn't know it, but Ichigo had a good memory (although certain Afro shinigami always slipped his mind) and the last time Ichigo was around Captain Kurotsuchi...he pissed him off quite well (mentioning Kisuke Urahara tends to do that). And if Ichigo was a betting man then he would swear that the crazy Captain remembered it as well.

Keeping perhaps the most emotionally devoid expression he could, Ichigo slowly backed tracked as slowly and cautiously as he could. Never taking his gaze off the mad duo, Ichigo opened the classroom's door and at a snail's pace made his way back out of the classroom. His gaze still on the two madmen, Ichigo slowly closed the door in front of him with a very noticeable creak.

Without looking back, Ichigo then instantly took off in a dead sprint and ran off towards the only place he could think of...Spirit's **"****Oh Shit, I pissed off Lord Death!"** hiding spot. Oh sure, everyone and their grandma in the DWMA knew about the place...but that doesn't mean Mayuri did.

But as Ichigo ran down the hall, he didn't notice as he sped passed a few of his fellow classmates. If only he had noticed, for if he did the students could have warned them of the horror that was waiting for them inside.

Speaking of that classroom however, it wasn't quite done with Ichigo yet. Opening the door a few seconds after Ichigo made his escape, a slender figure turned toward the direction where the Vizard had ran off in. Wearing a simple black Kimono with a pair of white gloves and a red band around her neck, the young women reached behind her black hair and touched her ear.

_"Nemu!"_ Captain Kurotsuchi roared through a communicator that was implanted in her ear, _"Bring back that insolent brat this instant! I have a few hypothesis I would like to test out on him!"_

Lieutenant Nemu Kurotsuchi nodded at the command, "Yes Captain." But before she could began this mission, a new voice came out of the device.

_"Uh, Miss Nemu?_" The shinigami recognized the voice of Professor Stein, _"Please try and bring Ichigo back in one piece, I doubt my superior would like it if we caused him any permanent harm to the kid or any damage to the school now that I think about it...I like my head as it is thank you very much."_

"Understood" And with that the Lieutenant vanished in a burst of Shunpo, hot on the trail of a certain orange haired Vizard.

**-To be Continued-**

* * *

><p>So, first Omake belongs to Mayuri and Nemu. And yes, that <strong>-To be Continued-<strong> means that this one will have a sequel that will involve a few more Soul Eater characters. It may not be the next one, but that depends on the ideas you guys give me.

Remember, don't take these that seriously. They are just little omakes that have no real impact on the plot and are just goofy shots involving characters from Bleach and Soul Eater.

Seriously though, please feel free and give me ideas for these. They can include nearly anyone from Bleach, as in both canon, filler, or even from arcs that won't be included in this story **(I explained in chapter 9's Author notes, go there for more info)**. I only ask is that you don't include Zaraki ( I have a feeling that he will be a popular choice), I have plans for him in a future chapter. He won't be a stay on character in this story, but I have a idea for him.

Well with that said, see you guys next chapter.


	12. Relaxing Snake Bite

"Well it could be worse."-Speaking

_'Don't say that you fool...'-_Thinking

_"Pathetic"/"What the hell?"_-Hollow/Weapon Form talking

**"Fight!"**-Zanpakuto/Yelling/Attack Name

* * *

><p>Chapter 11: <strong>Relaxing Snake Bite.<strong>

_-It had been some time since the dreaded battle with the Uncanny Sword, Masamune Nakatsukasa. With Tsubaki's brother at peace and her family name cleared, Ichigo returned to Death City and his daily life in this strange city. But what could be waiting for him just around the corner?_

* * *

><p><span><em>Ichigo's Apartment:<em>

"No."

"Come on Ichi!"

"Nope, not that."

"But it looks so good on me!~" Blair cooed, pushing up her chest.

Despite that however, Ichigo remained strong, "Regardless, you are not going to Maka's dressed like _that!"_

* * *

><p>Now...why were these two roommates having a fairly one sided argument concerning a certain female's current choice of clothing? It was quite simple actually.<p>

It turns out that Maka and Soul were having a party (likely celebrating Soul's recovery after the injury he got sometime ago) and the Scythe Miester had invited a few of her fellow classmates to attend, Ichigo included. After the recent mission with Tsubaki and BlackStar, Ichigo had wanted a nice chance to relax and have some fun, so he accepted her invitation. Happy that the normally anti-social shinigami had decided to join them, Maka also made sure to remind Ichigo that he could bring someone along if he wanted.

Thinking for a moment, Ichigo eventually came to the idea of asking Blair if she wanted to go along. Its not like he had any other friends from Death City that he could invite anyway and the two of them hadn't had that much time to spend with each other lately due to missions and all. So why not?

Too bad Ichigo had forgotten one very important detail about this kitty in particular...

...Blair liked to make his life a living hell any chance she could get.

It turns out that the magical cat had the idea of wearing a _very_ revealing outfit to Maka's party...one that would involve a lot of cleavage and teasing. So in response, Ichigo had respectfully refused to go to the party as long as Blair was wearing that outfit. This of course resulted in Blair letting out a mini fit in a attempt to change Ichigo's mind but even that didn't have much of a effect on the strawberry.

Blair huffed and turned her back on Ichigo, "You're so mean~"

Letting out a small sigh, the Vizard then walked over to Blair and gently touched her shoulder.

"Come on," Blair looked over at the young shinigami, "We won't be there for that long. Can't you just dress in something a bit more...covering? Just this once?...for me?"

Blair glanced at Ichigo, still pouting while doing so, "Do you promise that you won't complain the next time I want to wear it?"

The orange haired shinigami twitched for a second or two but he eventually nodded. Seeing this, Blair instantly changed moods. The magical cat-girl instantly jumped up and gave Ichigo a brief hug before running off to change her attire. With muffled sounds of various shirts, coats, and pants being thrown about, Ichigo just released a tired sigh before taking a seat.

He knew he was going to regret it...but how could he say no? It was a miracle that he had been able to get her to change her clothes in the first place, denying her this little favor was beyond even his control.

It was a few minutes later when Blair returned, now wearing her more common attire. It included a pair of short-shorts, a black coat, a tank top (much more covering then her bra), and her trademark witch's hat. Twirling around so Ichigo could get a good look, Blair grinned when the Vizard gave her a kind nod of approval. With that little issue out of the way, the duo finally started to make their way to Maka's place.

On the way there however, Blair had a question that had been bugging her for quite a while.

"Hey Ichi?"

The Vizard gave her a quick glance, "Yeah?"

"Why did you come to Death City in the first place?", it had been quite a interesting question when it came to the mysterious Vizard (whatever that meant, Blair had no idea). Despite rooming with him for quite a while, Blair still had no idea of why Ichigo was here, where he came from, or what his life was like before coming to Death City. Its not like the city was a giant tourist attraction, people just don't come to live here all that often. So why here of all places?

Too bad Ichigo isn't the type to talk about the past, that's one thing Blair had gotten from the young man after all the time she had spent with him. He is just so private when it came to topics like this...it was really something that drove Blair nuts at times.

Still, back to the topic at hand. Ichigo hadn't said a thing since he was asked such a question and there was a thoughtful expression on his face, as if he was thinking over what he was going to reply with. But when he did reply...all Blair could do was mope.

"Nothing much really, I had some problems back home but nothing...too earth shattering." , he then turned back to that cat, "What about you? Despite all your fears about your magic, why did you come to this place out of everywhere else?"

Of course he would turn this around on her. Considering how big of a deal Blair had made her magic sound back when they first meet, why was SHE in Death City? Screw Ichigo's reasons (for the moment at least), why was she there? She told him about how the people avoided her due to her magic and the idea that she was a witch because of that. Hell, it was amazing that she was able to go for so long before one of the DWMA's students came knocking on her door.

"Um...I-well..." Blair muttered, trying to think of a good reason. Ichigo on the other hand, just smirked a bit but remained silent none the less.

After mumbling over her words for a few moments, the magical cat elbowed Ichigo in the ribs, "I don't know...Blair was bored, this place was interesting..."

'...'

Ichigo looked at her with a expressionless look on his face, "You didn't think about it that much did you?"

Blair let just a tiny blush come to her face, not wanting to admit that her reason could have been that simple, "Well...maybe. Blair just heard so many stories about how weird the city was, it just sounded fun." The kitten just started to mumble after that, a little too embarrassed for her own good.

Getting only a bit of enjoyment out of Blair's mumbling (the shinigami always wondered what it was like to tease someone, he never had the opportunity like Blair or Yoruichi always had), Ichigo let out only a small chuckle. Blair had stopped mumbling at that point and was now giving Ichigo a frustrated (yet cute) glare. Ichigo wasn't paying attention however and was instead looking at his watch.

"Come on then, I'd rather not be late and have to hear Maka complain." And with that, Ichigo picked up the pace a bit with Blair trailing behind him.

* * *

><p><span><em>Maka's Apartment:<em>

It had taken only about a few minutes or so, but the two individuals arrived at the young Miester's home with more then a few minutes to spare.

Walking up a set of stairs, Ichigo couldn't help but notice how the apartment complex was surprisingly similar to his own. Did Shinigami-sama own these buildings and simply supplied them to his students when they needed them? Well, he did seemingly own the city with the DWMA being right at the center of it (not the mention the fact his name was in the city's as well) so it could have been possible.

Still, those thoughts were pushed aside when Ichigo and Blair came across the door number that Maka had given him before hand. Knocking on the door, Ichigo didn't have to wait long for someone to answer it.

Maka opened the door with excitement and smiled brightly at the Vizard, "Ichigo! You came!" she said, "I was worried that you weren't going to come...and you brought Blair with you." Maka hadn't expected Ichigo to bring Blair of all people, but who else did Maka know who Ichigo would have brought with him? Her dad? Stein? Shinigami-sama?

Ichigo raised a brow at that, Did she really think that he wasn't going to come to her party?, "I told you I would come..." , this caused Maka to look away with a bit of a blush on her face.

"Well, you're normally don't hang around others at school so...I thought you were just telling me that so I would stop bugging you." ,Ichigo glared at her. He wasn't that anti-social. Yeah, he could be a bit cold when in public but it wasn't that bad...right?

_"Right. King, you are about as Social as a hollow is cuddly."_

_'Shut it.'_

_"Although...Nel wasn't that bad when she got a nice par of-"_

_'Shut Up, Seriously.'  
><em>

_"And then there was that Espada chick that the little ice-pick fought and her friends..."_

_'I swear to god...SHUT UP!'_

Noticing the thoughtful look Ichigo had at the moment, Blair decided to reintroduce herself to Maka...not that she needed to reminded. Sliding past Ichigo (who was currently 'talking' with his hollow). Blair walked right up to Maka and lifted her up in a big hug.

"Maka! Its been so long! I haven't seen you since you and Soul cut me in half!" Maka grimaced at that memory. That was one of the first time she had ever seen Ichigo enraged like that. It wasn't something she wanted to see directed towards her or Soul ever again. It was like looking into a inferno, like a pit of hell itself. The monsters, the evil humans she had killed in the past would have just dropped dead if he looked at them the same way. It was just horrifying.

Still, it wasn't a memory that was fit for this time. Maka gave the magical cat her own smile and returned the hug, "It has been awhile hasn't it?"

Blair eagerly nodded at the young girl's question but before she could say anything else, Maka asked another one, "You're not...you know, mad about all of that...are you?"

Oh sure, Ichigo was okay with the whole thing but what about Blair? She never expressed her feeling about the whole 'trying to kill you and eat your soul' situation. Was she mad? Was she furious? Was she thinking about ways to get her revenge at this very moment? What was Blair thinking!?

But of course...Blair had the exact opposite reaction that Maka was thinking about.

Why would Blair be mad? The four days that she had spent fighting Maka and Soul were just so fun! She got to really mess around with the duo and she even got to see first hand how protective Ichigo really was. It was actually pretty scary when he confronted Maka and Soul and nearly ripped them apart, right then and there. It was only luck that allowed Blair reappeared before that happened. Still, if thats how Ichigo could act when he thought she was dead, then Blair didn't want to know what could happen if...

That didn't matter right now though! All that mattered was Maka's party and spending time with Ichigo. Speaking of which...

"Ichi? You okay?" Blair poked Ichigo, who had still not moved since he talked to Maka. It was starting to freak out both Blair and Maka (who Blair was still hugging) just a bit.

Luckily, her poking finally brought Ichigo out of his inner world and back to the present. Vowing to finish whatever he was talking about with his hollow later, Ichigo turned to the two ladies with a small frown, "Sorry about that, I kind of got distracted..."

"You tend to do that a lot..." Maka muttered to herself, "Anyway, come on in. Everyone is almost here."

Giving their host a nod, Ichigo and Blair followed Maka into her apartment. Upon entering said home Ichigo couldn't help but notice that even the inside of her apartment was similar to his. Oh sure, the furniture and placement of various objects were different but the basic shape of the place was the exact same as his own apartment. It just seemed a bit weird...kind of like Déjà vu or something.

_'Eh, whatever.'_

Waving away any weird feelings, Ichigo and Blair were lead over to a few coaches and chairs. This was also where a few of their other friends had been waiting for them. Taking a seat next to each other, Ichigo gave a small nod to others who were sitting in the room with him and Blair. Those people turned out to be Soul, who was sitting in a nearby couch with Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters were occupying another couch themselves.

"Hey Ichigo, Blair." Soul returned the nod while also earning a wave from Blair as well.

Turning to the son of death, Ichigo noticed that it seemed like everyone was just sitting around and doing...well, nothing before he and Blair arrived.

Understanding the look Ichigo was giving him, Death the Kid just shrugged, "BlackStar and Tsubaki are a bit late, so we are holding out on the activities until they get here."

One of Ichigo's eyes twitched a bit once he heard this but he tried to not let it show. For some reason, he just knew BlackStar would be late to this little party and would drag Tsubaki along with him in that regard. Ever since the mission to hunt down Tsubaki's brother, Ichigo has had a feeling that BlackStar's sense of timing would come back to bite him in the ass later...and lookie here, it did.

Still, Ichigo tried his best to not let it bother him. This was Maka's party after all. How good of a house guest would he be if he ruined the mood by overreacting to a single boy's tardiness?

_"A reasonable one considering that jackas-"_

_'You really want to be a pest today don't you?'_ Ichigo muttered into his mind, his hollow laughing back at him.

Still, it couldn't be that bad. Ichigo had arrived just a few minutes shy of being late, there is no way in hell that Tsubaki would let BlackStar being **that** late to the party...right?

* * *

><p><span><em>-Twenty minutes later-<em>

"I'm going to kill him." Ichigo muttered.

Soul nodded, "I'll get the body bag."

* * *

><p><span><em>-Twenty MORE minutes later-<em>

Finally after forty minutes of waiting, the group sighed in relief when they heard someone knocking on the door. Quickly popping up, Maka ran off to go see who it was and after a minute or two of waiting (again), the group put on their best smiles when they saw the ninja duo finally join them. Sure, Ichigo wanted to toss BlackStar out of a window, but he held back on that for now.

"Well, you two took you're sweet time." Soul said with a grin, earning a sheepish look from Tsubaki.

The young girl hung her head, "I'm sorry we're late everyone, we kind of got held up." While Tsubaki didn't openly explain why, Ichigo and Soul had a general idea as to what had held them up.

The two turned to BlackStar, "Did you get your hand stuck in that funky water again?"

The two were referring two a special type of water that Professor Stein had given BlackStar to help him maintain Tsubaki's new form. It seems that the young weapon had actually gained her brother's weapon form after she defeated him, but it was far too strong for someone like BlackStar to wield. So in response, the ninja had asked (or demanded) for some help from the school's resident professor.

This 'help' resulted in a strange jar and even stranger water designed to absorb spiritual/soul energy. If BlackStar could eventually hold his entire hand in the water without feeling anything, then he should be able to handle Tsubaki's new form. The Professor suggested however that BlackStar take it on only one finger at a time.

And how do you think that turned out?

BlackStar scoffed before sliding into a chair, "Yeah, that is one freaky jar..."

Oh, and BlackStar still couldn't tell the difference from the properties of the Jar and the water. He was thick in the head like that.

Sighing, Ichigo accepted the boy's excuse, regardless of his personal opinion of the matter. He still wanted to toss BlackStar out of a window for causing all of them to wait on them for nearly an hour, but he let it go...until the next time they could spar anyway.

Regardless, Ichigo didn't really care all that much when Tsubaki sat on the other side of him, the couch now being occupied by Blair, Ichigo, and Tsubaki. Its understandable that a person like Tsubaki wouldn't leave her friend alone to go to a party, especially if he was messing around with a soul/spirit absorbing jar of water. Considering that BlackStar looked like a dried up zombie every time he messes with that stuff, some supervision was always required.

"Ah," Tsubaki said, not recognizing Blair. It wasn't that surprising, as only Ichigo, Soul, and Maka were actually the people in the room who had seen the cat's human form before, "Ichigo, who's your friend?"

But before Ichigo could respond, Blair leaned over the young Vizard and got a bit too close to Tsubaki, "I'm Blair! Nice to meet you, do you know Ichi?"

Ichigo gave the cat-lady a small glare. He knew that Blair had at the very least seen Tsubaki and the others before, and Ichigo had mentioned her enough that Blair shouldn't have to ask such a question. Still, Ichigo wasn't that surprised by this, Blair was the type to mess around at every opportunity.

"Well," Tusbaki said as she leaned away from Blair, "Ichigo is in the same class as the rest of us, and he helped me and BlackStar in a mission not too long ago."

"Really?" Blair pouted before turning to Ichigo, "Ichi! Why didn't you tell me about that? No wonder you leave Blair all alone! You're off running around with her!"

Both Tsubaki and Ichigo blushed at the implication. "Thats not what she meant!" Ichigo shouted, Tsubaki silently nodding at the boy's statement.

Blair didn't look convinced however. Luckily though, Maka's timely entrance with some food caused this conversation to be put off for the moment. But that didn't stop Ichigo from giving Blair a glare, for which Blair just returned with a smile of her own. They weren't done with this conversation by a long shot. Still, any strange or awkward conversations were saved till after everyone was finished eating or else they might have gotten a old fashioned 'Maka Chop' to the side of their heads.

After everyone had finished their food however, the party pretty much devolved into minor chit-chat between everyone.

Blair talked to Maka, Tsubaki, and Liz, the three of them comparing how the guys they lived with acted in comparison to each other. BlackStar talked to Soul, ninja telling the weapon about one of his latest 'god surpassing' stunts. It involved a bungee cord and a whole lot of paint. Patty also listened in on the ninja's tale, although her sister made sure to pay attention in case BlackStar mentioned anything...inappropriate.

* * *

><p><strong>-Slap!-<strong>

"Damn it, what was that for!?"

* * *

><p>And Ichigo talked a bit with Death the Kid. The young shinigami had been interested in what exactly Ichigo's abilities were for quite awhile now, since he had the least amount of experience with Ichigo's powers. But Ichigo just waved him off, saying that he would tell him at a more appropriate time. Although, that was just a big lie.<p>

The truth was, Ichigo just didn't want to deal with explaining 'his version' of a shinigami to Kid just yet. It would only cause a big head ache for both of them.

Still, despite the late start, the party turned out quite nice. It was nice to have a little breather from the chaotic duties that each student (besides Blair) had to deal with at the DWMA. Or at least it was nice until two ominous wavelengths echoed through the city, grabbing Maka's and Ichigo's attention easily.

It was fairly nice...or at least it was until something happened. Like a plague, two Spiritual energies echoed throughout the city, catching the attention of everyone that could sense them, Ichigo and Maka included.

Shooting out of her seat, the Scythe Miester accidentally knocked Liz out of her own seat, "Hmmph! Maka?!"

"Witches!" Maka said, running past the set of couches.

Any fun that the others had been having instantly vanished, a shocked expression falling over every student's face, "What?!"

"Two of them, I don't know how but they're in the city!" Maka said as she ran towards the door, "I'm going to check it out!"

That made Soul's blood run cold, "Maka! Wait a sec-", But it was too late as Maka ripped the door open and dashing out of her apartment before they could react.

With the door slamming behind her, all of the other students were awestruck at the news that not only were there witches in the city but alos that Maka had just run off to investigate by herself! Soul instantly took off to finds his partner, with the others not far behind. But during all of the commotion, none of them seemed to notice that Ichigo and Blair were already gone.

* * *

><p><span><em>Sometime Later:<em>

"Ichi?"

Ichigo looked at the cat on his shoulder, "Yes?"

"Are we there yet?"

It had been around four or five minutes since Ichigo had taken off to investigate the two Soul Wavelengths he had felt. They were certainly Witches for damn sure, but they had vanished as quickly as they appeared. The young Vizard was sure about where the source of the signals had originated from but what could have caused them to vanish so quickly? Did they come to this city to hunt someone down? Did they come to deliver a message? Why were they here?

And more importantly...when in the hell did Blair catch up to him?

Ichigo was sure that he had taken off during the commotion that had developed when Maka left, so how did she find him? How is that possible? Did she have like a teleporting spell attached to his body or something?

Ichigo sighed, "No, not yet."

Ichigo and his unwanted guest had been running for about five minutes now and Blair was already bored. Its not Ichigo's fault that the witch's soul wavelength had appeared in the middle of the city. It was far enough to run as it is and Ichigo didn't want to use his shinigami powers until he was certain that he would need them.

If only Blair could sense wavelengths like Ichigo and Maka could, at least then she could take this situation a bit more seriously.

"Aw, but we've been running for-"

"Blair," Ichigo interrupted her, "If you're so bored, why don't you head home?"

The magical cat just shook her head, "But what if something happens? Blair wants to help Ichi just in case!"

Shaking his head, Ichigo just continued onward. Of course that would be Blair's reasoning. She had been a bit annoyed that Ichigo couldn't take her with him on that mission with Tsubaki and BlackStar, so now Blair was doing her best to keep the shinigami in her sights as often as possible. It was a sweet gesture, but could get a bit irritating.

Still, the boy did his best to not let her whining bother him to much. After a few more minutes of running, Ichigo was almost relieved when they arrived at where the spiritual wavelengths had originated from. Ichigo noticed that not only was Maka there along with Soul (who had caught to his meister just moments before), but so was Professor Stein and...Nurse Medusa? Why was she there?

"Ah, Ichigo!" Stein waved over to the boy, "I take it you're here to investigate as well?"

Ichigo calmly nodded and approached the group but remained on edge. Something...wasn't right about the situation. Ichigo just had a sickening feeling in his gut. If this is where the witches should have been, where were they now?

And then there was the feeling...of blood being spelt. It made Ichigo sick to his stomach.

Still, the boy did his best to hide the uncomfortable feeling the best he could, "Yeah, but it looks like I'm a bit late aren't I?"

"A bit." Stein shook his head, "Nothings here, if a witch did create these wavelengths, they're long gone by now."

Ichigo sighed, the idea of this all being a waste of time greatly bugging him. Still, he couldn't help feel like something was off about of this, like there was a shadow still hanging over the group, him and Maka in particular. It had a almost nauseating feeling about it, something worse then the evil humans. A bit of madness that Ichigo had almos-

Ichigo was knocked out of his thoughts however when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over, he noticed that the local medical advisory was quite worried.

"You okay Ichigo?" The DWMA's nurse asked the boy, a bit concerned. He looked a bit pale in her opinion.

The Vizard shook his head, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Medusa didn't look too sure, "Really? You could always come back to my office if you're feeling under the weather."

"No thanks, I'm fine...really."

The nurse still seemed a bit unsure about the subject but finally let it go after giving Ichigo one last look over. Smiling, Medusa gave Ichigo a pat on the shoulder, "Okay, but just remember. If you ever feel a but down, come and visit me okay?"

Ichigo wanted to brush off the suggestion, but the Nurse's piercing glare made him reconsider, "...sure."

Smiling a bit too sweetly, Medusa gave Stein a small nod and walked away, "Its was nice to see you again Ichigo!" Medusa waved to the boy before leaving. Ichigo waved back at the school nurse but still seemed to be distracted by something. It was like there was a beacon being lit off in the distance...but what could it be?

Professor Stein left soon afterward as well, claiming that he had a experiment to work on. Maka and Soul were still talking to each other while Blair was exploring for a bit, a nasty feeling having worked its way up her spine.

But as Maka and Soul (who have been talking about something fairly important during most of this, seemingly ignoring Ichigo's arrival) finally departed, Blair noticed that she was all alone. Meaning that someone else had already left her behind...

"Ichi?"

* * *

><p><span><em>Meanwhile, somewhere in Death City:<em>

You would think that people would be a bit freaked out if they saw a grown man flying from rooftop to rooftop right above their heads.

Well, Death City wasn't exactly normal to begin with.

But, Ichigo didn't care if anyone noticed him. Its not like stranger things didn't went on in this city day after day. The boy was far more focused on following something he had sensed back in that alleyway. Despite what Professor Stein had said, Ichigo had actually sensed something back in that alleyway.

Perhaps it had to do with his unique perception of Souls in comparison to Maka and Stein, or maybe it was because he had witnessed this presence before? Back at the Church he had fought that strange boy, Crona? Either way, the young shinigami had somehow been able to snag just a trace of one of the witches that had been in that alley.

And he recognized it.

Taking out his combat badge and discarding his body, Ichigo took off without warning and followed the trail. Sure, it might have been a good idea to inform Stein or someone else of this but at the rate the trail was vanishing it would be too late by then.

In order to get a better vantage point, Ichigo scaled a nearby apartment building so he could get a better look at the city.

While doing so, Ichigo had to admit that even from a building this big, the view of Death City was quite breath taking. Perhaps it was the shear number of buildings, or how the people walked around without a real care in the world. Either way you call it, the sight of him gazing over the roof tops of this city calmed the boy. Despite the difference in architecture, looking at the city from such a angle reminded Ichigo of his old home.

Of Karakura town.

**"Ichigo, now is not the time."** Ichigo sighed at Zangetsu's words.

That wasn't why he was here. He had a Witch's left over Spiritual energy to track.

"Right."

Taking a moment to concentrate, Ichigo widened his range. His ability to track Spiritual Energy has never been that great but after after the display the witch had left back in that alleyway, it wasn't that hard to track for even someone like him. Despite that however, Ichigo was having a bit of trouble finding his target. The amount of energy left behind by this witch was slowly disappearing. If he took too much longer, Ichigo could lose his only chance to catch the witch by surprise.

Still, the trail was starting to dissipate...

"Got it."

...but not fast enough.

Using a bit of Shunpo, Ichigo vanished from the rooftop and made his way over to where he felt the largest concentration of the witch's spiritual energy. Getting closer, Ichigo had no doubts that this was indeed the same witch that had attacked him back during that incident with that strange kid with the black blood. Ever since thing, Ichigo had been wondering how long it would take her to make another move. But in Death City of all places? That was unexpected to say the least.

Ichigo didn't care though. This witch owed Maka an apology for what that Crona kid did to Soul, and that doesn't even cover the 'observing' crap that she mentioned the last time they meet. After Aizen, all Ichigo wanted to do was nip it in the bud while he could.

The Vizard eventually came to a stop at a dead end however, another alleyway. Ichigo took a moment to expect the alley before diving into it. There was no telling what traps or unsuspecting creature could be waiting down there for him. But after searching for any other foreign spiritual energies that could be hiding down there, Ichigo only found the witch's.

"Fine then," Ichigo muttered, drawing Zangetsu.

Taking a leap from his current rooftop, the orange haired Vizard landed in the middle of the alley. He was sure to be as quite as possible while he made his approach, his sandals making only a slight noise as he touched down. Taking a moment to assure his suspicions, Ichigo narrowed his eyes towards one of the darker sections of the alleyway.

"I know you're down there," Ichigo raised Zangetsu, "Come out quietly and I won't level this entire place to flush you out!"

Ichigo waited for a moment but scoffed when he heard no response from the 'witch'.

"Fine then, you asked for it."

Lifting his Zanpakuto upward, Ichigo prepared to blast the alley with a unnamed Getsuga Tenshou. It should be no where near enough to kill the witch, but it should be enough to ruin her hiding spot and flush her into somewhere he could see clearly. As he was about to launch his attack however, Ichigo heard a very familiar chant finally emerge from the shadows.

* * *

><p><strong>"Nake <em>snake cobra<em> cobubra, Nake _snake cobra_ cobubra..."**

* * *

><p>Ichigo cursed. He remembered those words, that was the same chant that the witch had uttered before she attacked him last time. But that wasn't the only thing the Vizard heard. There was also a slithering sound in the distance...like the sound of a snake slithering on the ground.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>"Light Serpent!"<strong>

* * *

><p>A pair of giant teeth burst from the darkness, four giant fangs flying towards the young shinigami.<p>

Ichigo had only a few brief moments lift his massive sword up in time to intercept the sudden strike. With the sound of metal clashing with something and fangs digging into Zangetsu, Ichigo's eyes widened as he got a good look at what had attacked him.

It looked like some type of snake, only not completely there. Instead of a long leathery body, the creature instead had a a body that was made up of many strange orbs and dots with a snake's head at the end. In fact, the head didn't even look like the real animal! It was more like a crude, simplified version that was colored pitch black!

**"Ichigo, look closely."** Zangetsu warned.

Taking the advice, Ichigo examined the snake creature as it tired and failed to break through his Zanpakuto. It was then Ichigo noticed it, a familiar aura that was surrounding the snake's body. It was the same energy that he had followed to this exact location.

**"The thing belongs to the witch, shes using it to delay you." **Ichigo growled at the realization.

How could he had been so stupid? This thing might have caught him off guard due to having the same energy signature as its master but that is not what pissed him off. Instead of trailing the witch, Ichigo had been following this creature by mistake. His determination for catching the witch had blinded him to something that was right in his face!

Its not that the trail he had been following was getting weaker, that was only part of the issue. The power he had felt from thw witch was much greater then this creature's, even her left overs should have been more powerful then this! The difference in power was obvious and he only realized it now, when the snake was right in his face.

It had been a wild goose chase from the very start!

"Bitch!" Ichigo shouted, tossing the snake off of Zangetsu with a swing.

The serpent flew through the air and slammed into a brick wall. Shaking off the headache the impact had given it, the snake tired to attack Ichigo again with another lunge. But with a single slice, Ichigo decapitaed the creature, leaving it to fall to the ground as he sighed at the pointlessness of the situation.

Ichigo sighed, "I ditched Maka's party for this?" Grumbling to himself, Ichigo put Zangetsu back on his back and walked away, the snake dissolving into a pile of tiny twitching arrows as he did so.

"I wonder if I can still make it back in time." Ichigo mused. That idea was dashed however when Ichigo heard something new moving behind him. Putting a hand on Zangetsu's hilt, Ichigo glanced behind him.

There, in the same shadowy corner that the first familiar had emerged from, three new ones appeared. Slithering out from the darkness, the three snakes hissed at Ichigo and leaned their heads back in preparation for a attack. Ichigo looked downright bored however due to how easily he took out the first one. Still, that didn't stop the boy from taking a careful glance at the alleyway.

There were other parts of the alley that were covered in shadows...more of these snakes could be hiding, just waiting for the perfect chance to attack.

Speaking of striking however, the three snakes took this moment to leap at Ichigo with their fangs bared. Reacting in turn, Ichigo brought out Zangetsu and prepared to cut them down just like he done to their sibling.

At least he would have if it wasn't for-

* * *

><p><strong>"Smashing Pumpkin!"<strong>

* * *

><p>-a giant pumpkin shaped explosion engulfing the snakes just a few feet away from Ichigo.<p>

"Yay!" Blair yelled, floating down towards Ichigo. The Vizard on the other hand just started at the Pumpkin construct with a blank look on his face.

How? How did she find him? Ichigo had left without telling anyone and that included Blair. So how and the hell did she manage to get here so quickly? Had she been following him this whole time? Ichigo knew that Blair could be fast when she wanted to be but this? To keep up with Ichigo for this long and do so without him noticing at all? Ichigo's powers of sensing sucked for sure, that was clear now, but how was this even possible?

But none of these questions seemingly bothered the magical cat-girl. Blair just spun around as she landed on her explosive pumpkin. Taking a small hop off of the pumpkin, Blair giggled a bit and ran towards Ichigo.

"Did you see that Ichi?" Blair said, hugging the young Vizard, "I squished those nasty snakes before they could hurt you!"

Despite know that he could of handled those creatures, Ichigo couldn't help but smile at the girl's determination. Taking a small glance at the remains of the snakes, which were nothing but ash now, Ichigo chuckled and patted the girl on the head.

"I can see that Blair," the girl looked up, "Thanks for the help, you really showed them."

Taking a moment to let that sink in, Blair let out a small squeal and hugged Ichigo even harder. This accidentally caused Ichigo to blush a bit due to the feeling of two...notable features of Blair being pressed against his chest.

_"King...could you just-" _

Ichigo's hollow asked, but Ichigo cut off his mental connection to the spirit. He wasn't in a good mood, he didn't want that bastard to make this situation any more awkward then it already was.

"Blair?" Ichigo patted the girl on the shoulders. Blair briefly stopped hugging him and looked up, "Do you want to head back to Maka's party? Seems like a better idea then staying here with a bunch of dead snakes."

Blair nodded her head eagerly. The alley made her feel uncomfortable even with Ichigo there with her. The magic that came off those snakes...it just felt wrong. They were sinister, sadistic, and reeked of madness. The magical feline had seen many different types of magic in her life but this was something completely different and not in a good way.

Feeling a bit worried at how eager Blair was to leave, Ichigo put his hand around her shoulder just in case. Without waiting any longer, the two friends vanished in a burst of static, leaving the empty alley behind them.

Or, at least it appeared to be empty.

Far off to the side, away from the fight was a pair of two trash cans. After Ichigo and Blair had left, the metal container started to move slightly, like there was something inside of it. With a small creaking sound, one of the lids slowly lifted itself open. Two pairs of eyes poked themselves out of the container and scanned the area, checking to see if anyone else was around. When that proved to be correct, the trash can's lid was tossed to the side, allowing a small green frog to hop out of the filth filled container.

"Ugh," the frog flung a random banana off of its head, "Sick..."

Still, that wasn't the most important thing the frog was concerned about. Taking a moment to make sure there wasn't anyone one else around, the strange frog quickly bolted. Hoping at a speed that shouldn't even be possible, the little creature was sweating bullets at the thoughts going through her mind.

_'Great! First Medusa turns me basically into a tadpole bomb and now theres another witch in this city!' _the frog inwardly screamed. the frog had seen that explosive bit of Magic Blair did, there was no way that it could be anything other then a witch...right?

Taking a turn, the frog hoped that she could find the entrance of Death City before anything else happened to it.

_'Ribbit...and then theres that guy with the huge sword,"_ the frog muttered,_ 'He slaughtered Medusa's familiar like it was nothing!'_

Trying its best, the frog quickly hopped its way through Death City. Dodging random bystanders and their feet, the frog did its best to not be seen by anyone. It took more then a few minutes of constant hopping, dodging, and even the occasional getting stepped on before the frog finally saw a giant set of doors in the distance.

_'Screw it! I'm out of here!' _the frog thought, the sight of a door filling its sight,_ 'Hopefully Medusa won't find me after I've high tailed it our of here, ribbit!'_

And with that, the frog seeming hopped its to freedom, escaping the walls of Death City.

Too bad it didn't notice a pair of sharp eyes following its every movie, just waiting...like a snake, about to pounce onto a fearful, little frog.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter END.<em><br>_**

**-Sorry if this chapter seems a bit filler-ish, I wanted to get some character interaction in during this break and show that not every chapter has to be filled with nonstop fighting and chaos (which is hard to do in Bleach or Soul Eater). Still, for those who are familiar with the end knows whats going to come next.**

**Until then, I will see you guys next time. And if you have any questions, send me a message or leave it in a review (Unless you are a guest, then don't bother since I can't message you back).  
><strong>

**RxR**


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